something from the "preexisting art I haven't posted anywhere publicly yet" collection today: ace with my fankid and seraphim ocs, in a hypothetical good end for all of them au
Mae after describing to Touko in graphic and visceral detail how she wants to pry open her ribcage with her bare hands, crawl inside her chest and live next to her heart
[ 𝐆𝐀𝐙𝐄 ] ― Maeko and Max lock eyes across the room (at the conviction of Richard and Isla Burke)
The defendants were guilty- of that there was no question. The Wizengamot had gathered, though, to debate the matter of their sentencing. Some were heavily in favour of a no-tolerance policy, punishing all Death Eaters and their affiliates with the Dementor's Kiss. Others argued that there were benefits in keeping them alive, and sane: In aiding psychology and criminology studies, for exchange of information, or simply to prolong their awareness of their own punishment.
Max had to attend every day of the Wizengamot's gathering, as a formality. It had been long, and gruelling, and a complete waste of time. Aside from the mountains of paperwork sitting on her desk that she was yet to complete, Max was awarded a promotion with the Burke's arrest. She was building her squad from the ground up, a combination of inflitration aurors to go undercover, intelligence operators to pass and process information, community outreach officers... It was a mammoth task, and Mac was keen to get on with it.
As far as Max was concerned, her role had finished the day she brought Richard and Isla Burke into custody. So it was a genuine surprise when she was addressed by a witch in the stands: "Major Squint," She said, and Max raised her head, standing. "Your report on the possibility of rehabilitation for the dependent isn't here. Is there a reason?"
Max cleared her throat, "Yes, ma'am. The defendants don't have a legal dependent. Maeko turned 17 on the day of their arrest." She flicked a glance to the girl, seated on the other side of the court room. Maeko Burke was glaring at her with an empty, icy gaze.
"Is there any evidence to suggest she's a risk?" The witch asked, and Max frowned slightly, turning back to the Wizengamot.
"... With respect, ma'am, Maeko Burke is not the one on trial. She was fully investigated- and vetted, by the Headmistress and Head of House at Hogwarts. Cleared of any wrongdoing. The Godric's Hollow Foundation has offered to sponsor her, if needed."
"We'll make provision for a Supervision order," An aging wizard said, straightening out the sleeves of his Wizengamot robe, "There's precedent for that. Thank you." He nodded, and Max sat, doing her damned best not to look at the teen in question, again.
"Do we have sufficient numbers for a vote?" The Chief Warlock looked to his right, to his administration assistant, who peered up at him through her silver-lined glasses, and nodded. He then turned to his left, and right, raising his brows, "We'll begin, then. All those in favor of administrating the Kiss, please raise your hand."
Max paid attention, then, looking up at the wix in deep plum robes. Slowly, each and every member of the Wizengamot raised their right hands. Max blinked in disbelief. It was unanimous: Richard and Isla Burke would have their soul sucked out by Dementors, and be thrown away in Azkaban until their bodies succumbed. The next vote was merely a formality, for the records: "And those in favor of not administrating the Kiss?" No hands were raised.
Max thought of her father. A pacifist, until the end. So determined to remain neutral in pursuit of peace, that it killed him. He'd roll in his grave.
The Chief Warlock's spiel at the conclusion of the trial was a blur, and Max found herself tuning it out. Years of work. Years of her life. Gone, like that. She blinked to attention when a hammer banged against wood, and someone nearby clapped her on the back, another offered a handshake in her field of vision. She shook it automatically, and then the others that were offered, turning her gaze to the space where Maeko Burke had sat in the dungeon court, now empty.
The first odd thing that happened was that Xiomara wasn’t home when Nate left for work.
Usually, she spent her evenings in. But Nate didn’t think too much of it; maybe she’d been in a good mood and decided to go out for dinner. He sent her a text before he left the flat and then didn’t think about it again during his shift, where Harriet had come in and shot the shit with him for most of the time he was working.
They were all wired when the bar closed, and some hedges were supposed to come through the safehouse late, so Fish walked to Putney with Nate and Harriet, laughing and stumbling along the busy London late-night streets. Nate shushed them both when he unlocked and opened the front door and whispered at them to go make a drink; his sister ruffled his hair infuriatingly and Fish just rolled her eyes and made a face at him, and Nate went up to check on Xi.
Except that Xi wasn’t in their room, which was dark and entirely un-mussed since he’d left twelve hours ago. Nate checked his phone; there were messages from Seth, and from Ralph. But none from Xi.
“Xi…?” Nate called out, flipping on lights with magic as he moved in and out of rooms. Harriet and Olivia both looked at Nate curiously as he checked out back. Nothing.
Nate looked up at Harriet, who had followed him out the back door; she took in his expression and said placatingly, “Hey, I bet she’s fine. Probably just met up with friends and forgot to tell you.”
“Yeah…” Nate replied, entirely unconvinced. He supposed it wasn’t that outlandish a theory, except—why wouldn’t she have just said I’m going out, don’t wait up? Nate dialed her cell number and it went straight to voicemail. “…fuck. No. This is weird.” He moved past Harriet back into the house and bounded back up the stairs, holding out hope for one last theory; if Xiomara had taken the potion she needed for the night, then surely she was fine and her phone had just died.
But when Nate pulled open the cabinet beneath the bathroom sink, there were two fucking extra potions that she hadn’t taken that day. Meaning this was not just weird—it was fucking bad. “Fuck…” Nate said to no one, panicky. He pulled out the stoppered potion vials that Xi should have taken already that day and lined them up on the sink.
And that’s how Nate marked the time that Xiomara was M.I.A. That, and by smoking three entire packs of cigarettes and pacing the flat and snapping at anyone who tried to speak to him. Harriet magically locked the drawer with Nate’s ‘secret’ emergency stash, like a fucking bitch (a move Nate would sheepishly thank her for, later), and Nate couldn’t pick through the lock.
So by the time afternoon was rolling around the next day, and four potions were lined up on the sink, and the flat was filled with cigarette smoke and secondhand anxiety, Nate was looking every bit like he hadn’t slept or eaten and was very near breaking point.
That’s when Maeko Burke showed up.
“I’m really not in the fucking mood—” is what Nate snapped at her when he opened the door to find Maeko and her brother on the other side. Both looked uneasy.
Nate made to shut the door in their faces but Maeko reached out a hand, her elbow locked sternly to hold the door open. “It’s about your girl.”
Nate nearly pulled the door off its hinges in his haste to reopen it. “What the fuck did you do to—”
“You can cut the fuckin’ attitude—we’re trying to help you, yeah?” Nate blinked, and stepped back, and Maeko and Oz came in. They explained about Mathis, about Xiomara staying the night in Knockturn Alley. They told him about the officers in the morning who’d planted evidence on her. Nate was tugging on his hair by the end of it, slumped in a chair, feeling sick.
It was nearly sundown and Maeko, Oz, Nate, Harriet, and several uninvolved hedges were all debating the best method for busting Xi out of the Ministry when Nate felt their wards being disrupted. A distinct disruption sequence that made his stomach drop. He held up his hands to quiet the commotion of the safehouse, and when that didn’t work, he whistled loudly. “Everyone shut the fuck up! There’s law enforcement coming, so that’s, fucking—Code Blue Exit Strategy, now.”
Everything was a flurry of motion and magic as hasty illusions were shot up left and right. They barely managed to get everyone hidden by the time there was a sharp rap on the door. Nate’s heart was hammering inside his chest as he walked toward the door, and his hand was shaking as, slowly, he opened it. There was a small brunette woman in Auror robes standing on the other side, with—
“Xi…” Nate said, the already low, hoarse tone of his voice breaking, and he held out his arms for her. He had about a million questions, but he held them along with his breath in stiff apprehension as he eyed the Auror.
Which was fruitless, as it turned out. Because not a minute had passed before Maeko Burke’s voice could be heard excitedly saying, “Kat??” She stepped forward and all the illusions hiding her and the others shimmered and melted away. Maeko skipped right up to the Auror and said with a Cheshire-grin, “No fucking way, Katie—you’re a fuckin’ bizzie?”
And then Maeko Burke practically jumped at the woman to hug her tightly, all while Nate looked on with uncomprehending horror.
Xiomara’s chest heaved as she leaned on the wall to gasp for air. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to force air into her lungs- to fucking breathe. She felt woozy, a side effect of being beat up by two strangers with her former boss standing by with a sneer on his face. Her eye was swollen and weeping, her lip was split, her nose was beaten. She looked like she’d gone in the ring with a fucking Hippogriff. Xi had no idea what to do. Where to go? Who to call? What happened now? She remembered the chilling warning, hissed into her ear:
Don’t show your fucking face here again, or I’ll peel it off.
Groaning, Xiomara clutched her stomach as she forced herself to stand and stumble away from the wall, out of the alley. Not looking where she was going, Xiomara literally ran into something- someone- and she stumbled back, raising a hand and shrinking away, certain that it was Mathis changing his mind. “No please I-”
She opened her eyes, frowning when she saw two oddly-dressed people in front of her. Xiomara squinted, it was difficult to see, but she thought she could make out the outline of two hedge witches who visited the Free Trader Beowulf Safehouse. There was a deep pounding in her head- Xi couldn’t remember their names for the life of her. They’d come with Piper. “I-I know you- Please don’t, I can leave, I’ll go- I just-”
Maeko was lounging on the bed in Oz’s room, puffing on a spliff while Oz hummed and swayed in uncoordinated circles in a pair of Dylan’s pleaser boots. ‘Practicing,’ he said, but Maeko had yet to see any improvement.
After some incident with Loxley that he was less than keen to talk about, he and Piper had gone to Professor Sprout’s farm to lay low for a little bit. Borgin and Burkes was unnervingly quiet without them.
“Mae?” Oz mused suddenly, looking out the window of the second floor bedroom into the empty alleyway below.
“Hm?” Maeko’s black-ringed blue eyes slid to one side to look at him.
“You remember that blonde bird? Looker…mean streak?”
“Who?” Maeko questioned with only mild interest, well used to her half-brother’s half-sensical high ramblings.
“From the safehouse. Tall famous snack of a boyfriend—used to be a gajillionaire.”
“Oh, sure. Xiomara Winters…she used to be in Tu—in Paxton’s house. At Hogwarts.” Maeko took a drag, blew it out, and then added, “…what about her?”
“She’s down in the alleyway, there—some goons givin’ her trouble, looks like…”
“What?!” Maeko stood up and stamped out the spliff, then hopped over to the window and peered down. Sure enough, there was Mathis watching with cruel amusement as Xiomara Winters brawled with two of his nastier-looking associates. “Motherfucking—that lowlife knows not to bring his shit near this building…”
Maeko was already pulling on some jeans and slipping her feet into shoes, and Oz followed suit by pulling off the boots and putting his bare feet into his loose high tops. “Oh goody! Are we rescuing damsels today?” He wrapped a shawl around his bare chest in lieu of a shirt, looking hopeful.
“Looks like it.”
They must have missed Mathis by mere minutes, which irritated Maeko, who had been hoping to give him a piece of her mind. They might have missed Xiomara too if she hadn’t run straight into Oz in her haste to flee the alleyway.
“Hey! Hold on there girlie, we’re not gonna hurt ya…” said Oz.
“Are you alright?” Maeko added, concerned. “Merlin’s balls, you look like shit…did they jump you, or something?”
“At least come inside and get cleaned up, maybe take a few PK’s for the road…us hedges gotta look for each other, don’t ya know?” Oz held out a hand toward Xiomara to help her up.
It wasn't until Xiomara heard their voices that she made the connection to their names- Maeko and Oz. Maeko she knew less about, but Oz? Fucking hell. They kept meeting. She reached up to wipe under her nose with her wrist to stop the bleeding. Xi flicked her gaze up to Maeko as she sniffed, trying to steady her breathing. "Old friends." Was the only explanation she gave, partly because she couldn't think of anything else- partly because she truly didn't know if or what curses Mathis had added while he'd stood there, watching her with a curled lip.
She shook her head at the offer, but did let Oz help her up. "If Mathis sees you let me in…" Xi warned, but she didn't have much of a choice, needing to lean on the hedge witch just to stand.
They hobbled into Borgin & Burke's, Xiomara felt more and more ill with every step until she was helped onto a couch of some description. She slumped, leaning forward to rest her head in her hands to stop the pounding. Her head was pounding, she felt hot, sick, overwhelmed, like a fire was burning in her chest- not unlike the sensation just before she'd burst the door off its hinges with Loxley.
Trying to remember Howell's warnings, and her Healer's pleading to breathe, Xi tried, in her broken, bloody nose, then out her mouth, past her split lip. She shook.
Xi looked up at the two of them, blinking drearily. "Please don't tell Nate. Don't tell any of them. If Mathis finds the safehouse, he'll-"
Xiomara jumped when there was a sudden knock at the door and she leaned back on the couch, wincing.
Maeko arched a brow at Xi as if to say, you need some better friends, mate, but otherwise didn’t comment; people from Knockturn Alley never pried into other peoples’ business as a rule. When the woman stumbled against Oz Maeko reached out to steady her, too; if she couldn’t even stand on her own there was no way she was gonna make it out of here without some help. “…then he can shove off,” Maeko finished for Xi, dismissing any lingering question of them helping her, “His lot know better than to fuck with a Burke.”
It was a group effort getting Xiomara inside, and after she’d been sat down Maeko flitted around silently gathering a few things—some clean towels, some ice, a large glass of water. Oz gave her a worried look when she rejoined the pair of them in the parlor and Maeko knew he saw what she was seeing: this girl looked really fucked up. Like—more than just a scrap kind of fucked up. Maeko gathered some ice into a hand towel to form an ice pack and held it out toward Xi.
“Can I tell him a few other things, then…?” Oz murmured suggestively, and Maeko kicked his shin; not the time.
There was a knock at the door and Xiomara looked about ready to jump out of her skin. Maeko handed the ice pack to Oz, who offered it to Xi, while Maeko walked over and put a hand on the closed door and closed her eyes, feeling the disturbance in the old building’s intricate wards that were powered by the same blood that ran through her veins. After just a moment, she said nonchalantly, “Cops…” and then walked back toward the other two. One look at Xiomara’s face and she added, “…bloody hell, relax. It’s not like they can get in here.”
Oz, who was kneeling in front of Xi and filling another towel with ice, waggled his brows and added proudly, “We’re what the au-thor-i-ties like to call infamous…”
Xiomara took the makeshift ice pack and held it over the bruised eye, which was what hurt the most. She managed to shift the towel with her other hand to squeeze her nose to try and stop that bleeding, as well. From behind her towel-face Xi narrowed her eyes at Oz- if this was another fucking joke about him genuinely thinking she was a sex worker…
She was on edge at the knock to the door, terrified Mathis had seen Maeko and Oz let her in and despite Maeko’s reassurances… Xi was not very reassured. She’d seen what he could do. Felt it. Xi swallowed, wondering if she’d prefer Magical Law Enforcement or Mathis’s goons- neither, frankly. “I’m on probation,” She said lowly, explaining. “There’s no way they saw, though, right? Mathis had that place warded up like-” She winced, “Like crazy.”
Xi looked down at Oz, wincing and shifting how she held the ice pack. It was a bit like using a spray bottle to put out a wildfire- everything hurt. She still jumped when there was another sharp knock at the door, hated herself for it. The blonde squinted at the hedge witch in front of her, imagining him getting into any sort of trouble with relative ease. “Oh yeah? What’d you do?” She had to keep the conversation going to stop the fear that ran rampant through her veins. He’d found her, he’d found her. You’ll. Explode.
Maeko and Oz both nodded at Xi in unison, commiserating, looking unnervingly related. Maeko glanced at the door when there was a second knock, but otherwise didn’t respond at all, instead taking out and lighting a cigarette with an aloof air.
Oz laughed, and stretched in his position on the floor until he was lounging half on the couch where Xiomara was sat and his legs were sprawled across the wood floor. He put his arms back, his head in his hands. “Morrigan’s Three Tits, what haven’t I done?” he began with a grin. “…bastard child whose mere existence was an offense worth keepin’ decades-old secrets, for starters…wasn’t allowed to learn magic like the lot of ya—but you know all about that, now, don’t ya? Well let me tell you somethin’—the safehouses on the Irish rounds aren’t so accommodatin’ as your Putney Palace with Mister Nathaniel Pinnock. You gotta do more than prove you can perform…if you want magic there, you gotta earn your keep. I did a lot of, ah…disreputable things, in exchange for spells. Turned tricks, traded drugs…lied, and stole, and cheated, and scrapped, and worse…” Oz sighed, and it was an odd combination of sad and wistful. Then he added cheekily, “…not to mention I spat in the face of a cunt at your Ministry not too long ago.”
Here, Oz looked expectantly at Maeko, who just shrugged and said wryly, “I’m…Maeko Burke.”—as if this explained absolutely everything. Which, to her, it did. But after about a minute of being fixed with Oz’s go on… eyes, Maeko gave a sigh of her own, and then continued in a slow, dreamy tone—as if recounting a past life—“What is there to say? You come from Knockturn Alley, with a name like mine, and it doesn’t matter what you done—people expect you to be a bad seed and somehow, they always turn out right. I snuck out of school in fifth year to go to a protest, turned into a riot. My wand at the time was a family heirloom, or some shit, and when I did some dark magic with it to protect myself it—turned against me. Fucked with my head, took over…made me almost kill my best friend before I snapped it in half. In sixth year my parents were involved in a plot to assassinate the Hogwarts Headmistress, and I was nearly forced into being their accomplice. And when they were shipped off to Azkaban, instead of leaving it all behind like I always swore I’d do, starting over, I came back here to live in this shithole—my grand fuckin’ inheritance—and those bastards out there are just waiting for me to do something really nasty, so they can justify what they’ve thought about me all along. As if I’d ever give ‘em the satisfaction…so look, just because your family, or the Ministry, or the entire fuckin world, or you your own damn self have backed you into a corner? You don’t have to be what they’ve written you off to be. It’s your choice. And keeping people constantly guessing about just what it is you’ll do next? It’s fun. Now…” Toward the end of this speech, Maeko had moved to stand in front of Oz and Xi; she handed Oz her cigarette and then pulled out her wand and pointed it at Xiomara’s face. “…hold still. Episkey.” Xiomara’s broken nose healed just as there was another knock at the door.
Xiomara frowned lightly, listening to the stories of each of the hedge witches in front of her. She overheard them at the flat sometimes- most hedges came with a story, most magic bloomed in adversity. While Maeko and Oz were unique, like every other hedge witch, their stories were uncomfortably familiar. All intertwined. And Oz’s former affiliations explained a lot about why they’d run in the same circles so often. She thought about bothering to explain to Oz that the hedge circle wasn’t hers or Nate’s, she wanted to explain the Free Traders as best she could, pieced together from Nate’s nonsensical rambling-- or maybe even ask more about Maeko’s story, dig in, ask why she’d never heard of it-- but Xi was still just…. Coping with what had happened. She could listen and that was about it.
The ice was melting in the summer heat, Xiomara moved the ice pack just as Maeko approached her and pointed a wand at her fucking face. Her eyes widened and Xi froze, even if the witch hadn’t instructed her to stay still she would’ve been frozen on the spot out of pure fear. The sensation of her nose being fixed was painful and she groaned, leaning forward to clutch it and swearing. She eyed the door with a glower and then picked up a fresh handful of ice, wrapped it in the towel then put it against her eye. “Thanks.” She commented. Their stories had done remarkably well at distracting her from the current, shitty situation.
Her phone vibrated against her thigh and she squinted, looking down at it, genuinely surprised it hadn’t short circuited because of the magic in the- a blip, and the phone screen went black. Well. Spoken too soon. She put the phone back in her pocket, against the pack of cards she’d bought for Nate that morning, and then leaned back in the couch, her hand moving up to dangle over her newly-fixed nose. Xi trembled, giving a shaky breath out. “... Any chance I could borrow a cigarette?”
---
Xiomara didn’t know when she’d fallen asleep. It had to have been the early hours of the morning. Mae fell asleep long before she and Oz had drifted off. Oz and Xi spoke quietly, she could see him itching to touch her, to cuddle, but he kept his hands firmly to himself, even sat on them at one point. They traded war stories. Hummed songs. Smoked. Smoked a lot.
It seemed that she’d only just fallen asleep when her phone buzzed to life again and she started, blinking rapidly and reaching for her phone, studying the screen. Nate. Merlin, he was probably laying a fucking egg by now… Xi reached up to rub her eyes and then hissed at the painful sensation. She put her phone on mirror mode- fuck, it looked bad. She locked her phone immediately and put it in her pocket, then pushed herself to stand. She was wobbly, all limps and sighs just to get to the front door. She had to get to Nate before he did something stupid out of worry.
Xiomara had barely opened the front door a crack before two wix in green robes pushed into the home. She stumbled back, tripping over some sort of metallic artefact that fell to the ground with a spectacular bang. “You- You need a warrant to be in here!” She thought she was talking evenly, calmly, but it sounded more like a shriek.
“No. We don’t. There are two and a half criminals in this property, you were seen fleeing a crime scene, and you two-” The wizard looked up, finding Maeko and Oz now standing, “Aided a person fleeing said crime scene. So, we have due cause not only to enter the property, but given you’re on parole, we can search you at will. As well.”
Xi folded her arms, stepping back from the Aurors. “You can fuck off.”
“Here I am, conducting a search.” The second auror said loudly, patting over his own pockets with a hum. He spoke through the contents of his pockets- a packet of gum, a quill, a train ticket- and then, he pulled out a small plastic baggie, with what looked like vacuum cleaner lint inside. “And- oh, dear. Xiomara, is this Mummy Dust?”
Xiomara was stunned. Genuinely, actually in fucking shock. She blinked stupidly, looking back at Maeko and Oz with her mouth half open. “... Are you… Is this a joke?”
“Xiomara Winters, you’re under arrest for breaching the terms of your parole, and being found with a prohibited substance.” She put her hands up, stepping back and away from them.
“Are you fucking kidding me? Are you- Are you for real?” Xi still could not comprehend it. He held up the bag, waving it a little, and then stepped forward, removing his wand from his sleeve. She barely had time to register what the fuck was going on over Maeko and Oz’s loud protests, before her arms were pinned behind her back with a swish of the Auror’s wand. Maeko stepped forward, bless her, but then the wand was pointed at her-
Xiomara blinked uncomprehendingly, mouth still popped open in shock before she was being spun, and apparated out of Borgin & Burkes.
Maeko had fallen asleep curled up like a cat in a tiny fetal-position ball on an armchair, while Oz had dozed sitting up, with his head resting on a cushion of the loveseat on which Xiomara was curled with her legs up and bent at an angle. It was a peaceful scene—for half an hour, maybe. An hour tops.
And then Maeko let out a cry of pain as she felt someone force entry through the wards on her home, without her explicit invitation; a loophole. She jumped to her feet, clutching her side, and Oz startled to the noise and scrambled up, protectively. The pair of them looked at each other and then heard voices in the entryway; Xiomara. Maeko shook off the pain and scowled, grabbing her wand and marching into the room where the commotion was, with Oz trailing close behind her.
Maeko came in on the offensive, with her wand raised threateningly. “Oi—you fuckin’ pigs have no right to—”
“I’d hold your tongue if I were you, Miss Burke…” one of the robed wizards cut her off dismissively, “…you’re a person of particular interest in this precinct, and my partner and I would just love to be the ones to finally bring you in—they’d probably give us a medal ’n everything.”
That did shut Maeko up for the moment, but she didn’t lower her wand at all, and continued to glare at the clearly corrupt officers as they performed their ‘search’ on Xi. She glanced over at Oz and saw him looking on wide-eyed and helpless, wringing his hands. There were specks of dust swirling around him in an unnatural way, and when he met Maeko’s gaze she shook her head at him and mouthed silently, no… Oz’s magic tended to be unstable and unpredictable, and now was definitely not the time for any kind of erratic outburst.
But then Xiomara was being roughly restrained, and both Maeko and Oz’s attention returned to her; Oz said loudly, “Get your fuckin’ hands off of her—” while Maeko, at the same time, growled, “Oh like fucking hell you think we’re just gonna let you—”
Maeko stepped forward, and was about to fire off the first spell that came to mind, when in a blip the intruders were gone, along with Xiomara. Oz emitted a pained, defeated sort of sound, while Maeko shook with rage, before forcing herself to slowly lower her wand.
She turned to face Oz, and he said, “What now?”
Maeko shook her head, not seeing anything they could do. But then, after a moment, she had a thought; “We…we should go to Putney…” Oz cocked his head at her, and Maeko added, “…we should go to Xiomara’s safehouse and talk to that prick, Nathaniel Pinnock. About what went down.”
