fractured in fragments us fragile things

falling to pieces but we're all the same broken

fractions and halves of some greater thing

falling to pieces but we're all the same broken parts

-broken parts, the maine

The air is crisp with the smell of snow as James steps through the gate and begins his walk down the winding path. Julian follows, at a respectable distance, unwilling to get any closer as James walks to meet his family, but simultaneously unable to let James out of his sight.

"James!" James turns, heart rate dropping back to normal once he realizes that the voice belongs to his sister, and he slows his pace so she can catch up. She's tamed her hair for the day and carries a bouquet of lilies-a fact he can't help but tease her on.

"You couldn't be more original?"

She sticks her tongue out at him. "Lilies for Lily from Lily seemed very fitting!" She looks at the bouquet in his hands. "Typical male. Thinks every woman wants a bouquet of roses,"

James' bouquet is composed of peach and cream colored roses. It'd been waiting for him on his desk when he arrived in the office this morning, in the same spot that Charlotte put the bouquet every year.

Business as usual.

"Rude of you to assume I would buy every woman a bouquet of roses," James says, returning to the topic at hand.

"Don't be silly," Lily laughs. "I don't think you actually buy any woman a bouquet of roses!"

But before James can respond, they arrive at their destination and the mood changes. Their parents and brother have arrived already, standing in front of the two gravestones they meet at three times each year.

Lily goes immediately to hug their father so James turns the other way. "Hi mum,"

She smiles, stepping forward to hug him. "What, no flowers for me too?"

It's like this every year, because despite their meeting in a graveyard, the tone for either of his grandparents' birthdays was never quite somber. From the time James was little, it'd always been an occasion to be happy and celebrate, a time to reflect and be the best versions of themselves. On his grandmother's birthday, they paid their respects and went to lunch as a family and finished the day off with a charity dinner to raise money for the children's foundation James' dad had created in his grandparents' honor.

When the rest of the greetings are made, they stand for their moment of silence, lying their flowers in front of Lily Potter's grave, before quickly returning to their usual, loud selves. James is the last to place his bouquet, bending down to add to the pile, when his eyes catch on something black on the ground, right near the edge of his grandmother's tombstone. He reaches out for it-

"James!" Lily's waving for him when he turns. "Come on!"

He looks back at the black substance one more time and sighs. It's important to keep up appearances. Business as usual.

"Coming!"

"How goes the job search, Lil?" Personally, James thinks Albus fully deserves the death glare their sister sends across the table at him. Lily's search for a career after Hogwarts had led her down many paths so far-most recently at an apothecary, despite her hatred for potions.

"Ugh," Is all she has to say.

"That well," James' mum says mildly.

"What's the point in having wildly famous parents and incredibly successful brothers if none of them will just give you a job?" Lily whines.

"Sorry Lil," Al laughs. "Not unless you want to go through three years of healing school,"

She pulls a face. "James?" She asks hopefully.

That's a definite no. "No way," He laughs it off. "Al and I worked our way up; you can too, Lil."

"God, you guys are the worst!" She complains.

"You've talked extensively about how you'd hate to be in both of their fields," James' dad points out.

Amongst her family's laughter, Lily hesitates. "That-that's a fair point,"

His mum's response is lost on James as the watch in his pocket starts to burn. It'd been Freddy's idea to use to the same technology their parents had used back in school to communicate between certain members of the business and it'd been a staple ever since. Today, his pocketwatch is urging him to get back to the office ASAP, and he frowns slightly, before slipping it back into his pocket.

"-come back and relax a little before we have to get ready for tonight?" His mum asks and there's some agreement from his siblings.

"Sorry," James frowns apologetically. "Have to run to the office for a bit."

"Oh, really?" She frowns and he nods, hugging her tightly.

"Sorry, mum. Business never stops,"

"That's why I didn't want to do what you do," Lily nods. "Suddenly I've remembered,"

James laughs and makes his goodbyes quickly. There are a lot of reasons his sister shouldn't want to do what he does, but the matter at his office is a bit more pressing at the moment.

Pressing her lips together, Charlotte contemplates the shade of red she'd just applied. It's a deep, almost blood-colored red, a shade named Revival, her standard actually, but she wonders if she should opt for something a bit more gentle.

A silly thought. She shakes her head, tossing her hair back over her shoulders. It falls back in loose waves and she smiles at the reflection in the vanity in front of her.

Make up can work wonders in hiding multitudes of things. The person that stares back at her doesn't look remotely worried, sleep-deprived, or terrified. The everyday Charlotte smiles the same way she would at a charity dinner or at one of their business partners.

Revival it is.

She stands from the vanity and returns to the bedroom, ready to get dressed for the day. With nothing official on the docket until the Potter's charity dinner tonight, she settles quickly on an outfit, donning the jeans, button down, and booties.

Damon's exiting the shower as she's zipping her booties. "Going out?" He asks flatly and then, before she can respond. "Oh wait, this probably doesn't concern me,"

He's looking right at her and despite the bite in his words, she meets his gaze. "You knew what you were getting into bed with,"

"I don't recall kidnapping being mentioned as one of the illicit activities you do!"

"Yes, well, we're all a bit thrown by this one!" Charlotte snaps, standing up to match his heated posture.

Damon seems to realize his tone and steps back, leaning against the dresser. "Sorry. I know this-motherfucker!" He exclaims suddenly, drawing his hand against his chest. "That's hot!"

It means little to him, but it means everything to Charlotte and she shoves him aside to reach the pendant necklace that's currently burning as they speak. She frowns at the message.

"-it's hard on me too, okay?" Damon shakes her shoulder gently. "Charlotte? Did you hear me?"

"I have to go," She slips the pendant around her neck. "We can talk more later if you'd like." And she's slipping out the door before he can get the chance to respond.

She has much more pressing matters than this.

Tommy's standing outside James' office when he arrives, which is interesting, because he doesn't usually wait like this. He looks...not nervous, that's not the word for it-hesitant, like he knows something he doesn't want to know.

"What's going on?" James frowns. "Who sent the call out?"

"I did," Tommy says and James feels his frown deepen because that means it's something serious.

"What happened?"

Tommy opens his mouth to respond, but then shakes his head. "I'll let him explain."

"Not reassuring, Lancaster," James says dryly and pushes his way into his office.

He can feel the tension when he walks inside. Charlotte's pointing her wand at Freddy, who's standing up against it defiantly. They're both glaring at each other, in a way they so rarely do. "What the hell is going on in here?"

"Ask him." The words seem to drip from Charlotte's lips and he's heard her sound angry before, but she sounds furious now.

The hint is always the tone. Anger brings shouting; it's when she becomes so angry that all her words seem icy and cold that they're in trouble.

James turns to look at Freddy and for the first time notices that he's standing the way he is for a reason: there's a person behind him. A girl, hiding in the corner of the couch, knees pulled to her chest to make herself smaller, looking like she couldn't be more uncomfortable. "What did you do?"

"I couldn't just get rid of her," Freddy argues, which doesn't answer the question at all.

"Like hell you couldn't!" Charlotte snaps.

"We had a mess on our hands already," Freddy shakes his head. "And limited time,"

"Fine," Charlotte says coolly. "Then we can take care of it now,"

Freddy stands up straighter. "Are you even listening to me?"

"She can't stay!"Charlotte cries, almost hysterically.

"Put your wand down," James says, sounding far more calm than he feels. Charlotte glares at him. "Put it down; we'll hear what happened first and decide what to do after," She looks absolutely furious as she continues to glare at him, and only after she casts a Muffliato in the direction of the girl on the couch does she lower her wand, but reluctantly she does. James reaches out to her, hand coming to rest on her forearm to calm her. From the way she yanks her arm away, it's not at all the helpful gesture he intends it to be. "Start at the beginning," He instructs Freddy. "What happened?"

Freddy's story is long and detailed, which James appreciates. It makes his decision a lot easier. "She stays," He says quietly, once Freddy finishes when the room is silent.

"Excuse me?" Charlotte's jaw drops.

"We can't afford to have bodies start piling up or have people fumbling around with modified memories."

"Oh, suddenly that's something we can't afford?" Charlotte returns sharply.

"There's no need to lash out at me." James says quietly. "I'm in this too." She deflates a bit, visible in her eyes more than her posture, which is still guarded and James continues. "I just came from lunch with my dad, where he said the Auror department has been on high alert for any suspicious activity." James thinks back to everything they'd talked about at lunch. "They know someone's smuggling in antimony and they're looking for things. We don't need to give them an excuse to come looking."

"We don't know anything about her!" Charlotte argues. "This is not the time to bring a stranger into our lives."

"She's got nothing on her," Freddy says softly. "Look at her!"

"I am," Charlotte says, but it lacks the heat of her earlier comments. "Which is why I want to make sure you aren't being blinded by a pretty face."

"How could you-" Freddy starts angrily.

"It wouldn't be the first time," Charlotte says gently and James knows she's not trying to be mean, but all the same Freddy looks slightly murderous. "And my children are the ones at stake here."

Freddy's the one to deflate now, the fire in his eyes dying a bit. "My gut tells me I'm not wrong on this."

"Good," James says, jumping in before Charlotte can snipe something at him. "Because she'll be your responsibility."

Freddy blinks. "Sorry. What?"

"Well we can't just leave her alone somewhere," James says. "And we can't spare the guards for a safe house right now. You brought her here; your responsibility."

Freddy's lips thin into a line. "Fine,"

Satisfied that neither of them are going to attack each other, or that Charlotte isn't going to make a sneak attack on Freddy's prisoner (for lack of a better term), James lifts the Muffliato in the room. The woman looks over at them instantly, the noise gone, and the hesitation is clear in her eyes. "What's your name?"

The woman bites her lip. "It's Juliette." Freddy sighs.

"I asked her." James says flatly. "You'll stay with Freddy, Juliette; there will be no arguments. You do what he says when he says it. If he says to go somewhere, you will do it, no questions asked. If he says to do something, you will do it, no questions asked. Do I make myself clear?"

Juliette's eyes are moving between James and Freddy, but they settle on James when he snaps out his question and she nods. "Excellent." James continues, addressing Juliette mostly, since Freddy and Charlotte are well familiar with his thought process. "We'll meet here at 7 then, and all head over to dinner together. Be prepared to leave Freddy's by quarter til," Charlotte's already walking toward the door and James makes to follow her, both of them stopped by the quiet voice.

"I don't have anything to wear."

James looks to Charlotte, but she's already taking care of it. "Something will be waiting for you." She says and James trusts she's as on top of this as she is everything else.

"She doesn't even know my size," Juliette whispers in amazement, behind them.

"Size six dress, five shoe," Charlotte calls back and James wraps an arm around her as he leads her out of the office.

"So this will be your room," Freddy opens the door of the spare bedroom in the penthouse. It doesn't get used much, but it's kept impeccably clean by his housekeeper anyway.

Juliette steps in around him. She hasn't said much since they've arrived, besides the odd "mhmm" and "okay" in response to his tour. Her eyes look all around the room, a bit more interested than she had been in other areas of the apartment, where she'd merely spared some rooms a glance, before turning her gaze warily back to Freddy. Her eyes stop briefly on the garment bag and silver heels lying on the bed and she makes a noise, as if in disbelief that they could be here already.

"You should have everything you need in-"

"Why did you bring me here?" Juliette interrupts him. He can't quite figure out the tone in her question, but there definitely is one. Is she upset? Angry?

He won't give her the full truth, but she should have figured enough out by this point. "You understand what the other option was, right?" She doesn't react. "What we are?" Still nothing. "What I would have had to do if I didn't bring you here?"

There's a long moment of silence, but finally she nods. "Yes."

"Is there anyone who would notice you missing?" Freddy frowns. He doesn't tell her what he's going to have to do to them. He's thinking she might be able to guess.

"No,"

"I need you to be honest with me," Freddy says. "Family, friends? Anyone who may report you missing to any sort of authorities?"

"No," Juliette shakes her head. "There's no one."

Freddy studies her carefully. He can't see anything in her face to say she's lying. "Get yourself ready," He nods in the direction of the bathroom in her room. "We'll be leaving by 6:45,"

Charlotte's tapping her foot impatiently when she hears the tell-tale pop that signals Freddy's arrival. "About time," She snaps.

"Where's James?" Freddy ignores her snark, which is probably justified, as he's barely two minutes late. They're not running any business right now, no missions to go awry; there's no reason for her to be so on edge.

Except she's on edge about everything right now. She won't be calm again until Liam and Olivia and back in her sight.

"He went early." Charlotte steps forward to adjust Freddy's tie-how these men always seem to have them crooked is beyond her-and then purses her lips as she appraises the rest of him and the blonde next to him. Juliette's actually cleaned up well, far better than Charlotte expected her to, even with the few glaringly obvious flaws. She's not going to comment on the use of gold eyeshadow with silver shoes. She's not. "To help his parents."

"Did we decide about a donation yet?" Freddy asks.

"James is doing 5," Charlotte had confirmed it with him earlier, before he'd left. "So I thought 2.5 each from us to match?"

"Seems reason-"

"You'll have to excuse these two. Always business, all the time." Damon interrupts Freddy and Charlotte shoots him a glare. He's smiling warmly at Juliette and extending his hand for her to shake. "I'm Damon, Charlotte's fiancee."

"Juliette," Charlotte introduces impatiently, before the girl can fuck anything up. "Freddy's girlfriend,"

"It's a pleasure," Damon smiles.

"We do have to be going." Charlotte urges, after exchanging a look with Freddy, before Damon can make more chit chat. She holds her arm out for her fiancee to take and spin her away.

Really, one of the last things they need is for those two to just start chatting.

"This is amazing!" Juliette marvels, as they walk inside the ballroom.

Charlotte and Freddy exchange a look. The Potter's annual gala- their main fundraiser for their foundation for underprivileged, abused, homeless, and parentless children-was always a top-notch event, but Charlotte supposed the awe was warranted for a first-time attendee. This year's theme was The Tales of Beedle the Bard, with the different fairy tales being represented throughout the entire room.

"Left or right?" Charlotte asks.

"The bar?" Freddy suggests. "As my mother is left,"

"Bar sounds great," Charlotte agrees, veering slightly right, not allowing Damon the chance to disagree.

Patrick's standing right there when they walk up and he pulls her into a hug immediately. Charlotte leans into the familiar comfort of her brother, smiling lightly when he squeezes her. "How are you?" She hears the unspoken how are you holding up, how are things going?

"I'm okay," He squeezes her hand lightly as he pulls away and turns his attention to Freddy. "Freddy, mate, they've got that 30 year Ogden's we like,"

"Yeah?" Freddy's eyes light up.

Patrick nods as Freddy immediately turns to order one. "Me too," Charlotte requests, a request which earns her a raised eyebrow from both her brother and her best friend. A whisky is rarely her drink order, but it seems well earned tonight.

And frankly, she may need the whole bottle and not just one pour as the Delano's step up to greet her and Patrick. As far as she was aware, the couple still occupied the house next to her childhood home, but it'd been years since anyone in her family occupied that spot.

"Charlotte!" Mrs. Delano steps right up to kiss her cheek and moves immediately to do the same to her brother. Freddy tenses next to her and she feels him pull himself up to his full height when she takes the tiniest step backwards toward him as he passes her the glass of whisky, despite the relative non-threateningness of this fairly old couple.

"How are you kids?" Mr. Delano grins at the two of them.

"Great," Patrick answers smoothly.

"Good," Mr. Delano nods.

"It's such a shame," Mrs. Delano smiles. "We were hoping to see your parents!"

"Oh yes," Charlotte smiles gracefully. It's been hard putting on a face about Liam and Olivia. This, now this is second nature. "But you know how it is. Dad just really hasn't been the same since the fall."

"The poor thing," Mrs. Delano frowns.

"He's very settled now," Charlotte nods and then gestures to Freddy. "We have to go find James and do some more hello's, but I will let him know you were thinking of him."

Mrs. Delano's "Please do," is easy to ignore when she's already walking away with Freddy, Damon, and Juliette.

"Imagine my surprise," Freddy drops his head at the voice, the stream of curses running through his mind. He should have known he wouldn't get away with this. He plasters a huge smile on his face and whirls around, grabbing Juliette's hand with his own on the way. "When I hear from my son's best friend's fiance that he's here with his new girlfriend."

"Mum!" Freddy greets her pleasantly and feels the tension rise in Juliette through her palm. "And Dad! Both of you! Hello!"

His dad looks thrilled at Freddy's discomfort, openly laughing, as his mum merely purses her lips to stare him down. "That he couldn't even be bothered to introduce her to his own parents."

Freddy hesitates; there's no way he can win this. "It was a spur of the moment thing?"

"What now?" It's his dad's turn to be surprised, his eyebrows rising.

"Decision, I mean," Freddy settles on. "We decided last minute that Juliette was going to come too," It's not a total lie; it had been very last minute that he'd even been aware of her existence.

"Juliette," His mum smiles warmly. "It's lovely to meet you dear,"

"Been ages since we met a girl Freddy's dating," His dad chimes in helpfully.

Freddy glares. "By all means, keep talking,"

"What are you going to do about it?" His dad puts his fists up, like they're going to tussle, as if Freddy hasn't been taller and stronger than him for more than ten years now.

Freddy grins easily. "I could take you old man,"

"Yeah, just wait until I pull out the wand," His dad teases. "I got years worth of dueling on you kid,"

His mum laughs fondly at them and addresses Juliette. "Don't worry; you get used to their nonsense,"

Juliette's frowning, looking between Freddy and his mum. "It's okay?" She says slowly. "I'm not..." She trails off slowly.

"Oh!" His mum says, sounding mildly surprised. "You're a-you don't have magic!"

Freddy blinks a few times but before he can come up with an excuse, Juliette is answering. "No," She replies quietly. "It has been a confusing adjustment."

"And you're French!" Freddy's dad exclaims, catching her accent, which leads to a wild topic change about his part-veela cousins.

Freddy remains fairly quiet though, studying the blonde next to him a bit closer. There'd been something deeper in her response to his mum about magic. He'd found her in a dirty corner in a Muggle port town with no wand, no clues at all led to her being magical at all.

There's a deeper depth here and he's going to get to the bottom of it.

"Hey," James finds Charlotte in the corner of the room, with a tumbler of whisky and surprisingly no other people. "Time for a walk?"

Her eyes flicker over toward a group of people. James follows them to see Damon talking with a group of his friends from Hogwarts, laughing boisterously along with his buddy next to him. "Absolutely,"

Julian and Brian are waiting outside and they barely have time to nod hello as James takes Charlotte's arm and turns to Apparate away.

"Could have warned me we were taking an outdoor walk," She says pointedly, the minute they re-appear outside of the graveyard gates.

James doesn't hesitate in shrugging off his suit jacket for her. "Needed to check something out." He knows she won't complain long, even if he hadn't said anything about his reason for coming back here again. And sure enough, she falls in step with him, keeping up easily despite her heels moving through the grass and gravel path.

It's far darker and colder, he's got Charlotte as a comforting presence right by his side with her fingers grazing his ever so often, and Julian and Brian are far closer than Julian was when they walked in that morning, but the path to his grandmother's grave may as well have been the same walk.

It's absolutely silent around them now, such a contrast from the noise his family had brought earlier in the day. There's no grass crunching beneath feet as Lily balances back and forth, none of Al's loud breathing. No other families mourning their own loved ones. No birds, no insects. Just quiet.

Charlotte stays silent until they arrive at the actual gravestones, and even then only mutters the charm to light the nearby lampposts as James crouches down to inspect the black substance he'd been looking at earlier.

It's gone.

James' mind is racing and he's standing up with his wand pointed at Julian before he even realizes what he's doing. Julian's hands are up in the air, showing he's nowhere near his wand and not making any moves for it. "What did you do?"

"What-" Julian frowns. "I've been with you the entire day!"

That-is an excellent point. He moves his wand to Brian. "James," Charlotte's hand comes to rest on his forearm. "He's been with me the whole day."

Brian's looking all around them carefully, a perimeter sweep, James guesses, which is not a bad idea at all, if someone saw him notice the substance in front of his grandmother's grave earlier in the morning and then came back to clean it up.

He's being watched. James had suspected it, but the confirmation is both unsettling and angering.

It's dark again suddenly and James looks to see Charlotte pocketing her wand into his suit pocket again. "We can't stay here." Her eyes are scanning around them as well and James agrees.

"No, let's go," Charlotte turns away first, with Brian hot on her heels, and James takes one final look around them, sure that he sees the whites of some eyes staring back at him as he's disappearing into space.

A/N: *crawls out of hole because it's been about a month since i last updated this* umm hello! here's a hot mess who made this here camp nano project and then wrote a total of like 200 words for it the whole month of april only to promptly pound out the rest of the chapter in the first three days of may. classic.