Dorcas and Basil made every effort not to run up the street. Dorcas especially had confused many people in her time. You could not tell that her strides were that much longer than her height should have allowed and yet she always seemed to arrive slightly earlier than everyone else even if they started from the same place at the same time. That mixed with the determination of ensuring her friend was safe resulted in her skip walking just short of running made Basil, whose stride did match his height, winded in an effort to match her speed. Even as Dorcas pushed open the back gate she heard a glass break, exploding loudly and then, after mere seconds it took to orient herself, heard another. She broke into a run in the backyard and watched as the back window burst again and repair itself. The shards pieced themselves together as if pulled by tiny threads back into place until they cracked and burst Basil caught up to Dorcas looking back and forth from the window and door assessing what was happening and what she might do about it.
"Me," Basil huffed.
Dorcas looked at him, her eyebrows knit on her forehead, irritated and still very much confused.
"In case intruders. Magic." Huff. "Alarm."
She understood and approached the house with greater resolve. She and Basil went up the small steps and Dorcas raised her wand unlocking the door as it swung open silently into a dark kitchen. They both went through the kitchen and to the hallway where she motioned for Basil to go upstairs. She had done this many, many times before but this felt different. Her training prepared her for a great many things and as confident as she was in her own skill and the training she received to use counter spells, offensive and defensive strategies, all of it, she realized that she was getting weaker. Something in Dorcas now was already failing her. She flinched at the bloom of clean, bluish light that reflected on the glass in the picture frames. She hadn't even noticed how dark it was until the light disappeared completely up the stairs with Basil holding his wand aloft and she squeezed her eyes shut to adjust her eyesight to the dark again. She could have walked in that house blindfolded if she wanted to. She felt ill. Her outstretched arm felt heavy as she rounded the corner to her left into the sitting room passing what looked like a little ceramic volcano puff, puffing away small clouds in sets of twos on the side table in the short hallway. She turned to find her best friend crouched and trembling in the corner and shielding her grandfather who was bunched into the corner but protected on one side by a couch and on the other side an old but well-maintained, upright piano, his granddaughter facing him and telling him that everything was going to be alright. That she wouldn't leave him alone for anything.
"Is there anyone else here?" Dorcas was impressed by the steadiness of her voice and at least seeing Philippa and Grandpa there, some of her focus returned. She could feel the sickness drop away.
Philippa started to hear her friend's voice and slowly looked over her shoulder shaking as she was yet managed to communicate 'no'. Both Dorcas and Philippa turned at the sound of Basil barreling down the stairs, the wand still lit as Philippa and Dorcas squinted against the brightness. Dorcas gestured at the light switch and the house now was full and bright. Basil went to help Philippa off the floor as Dorcas went through the remainder of the house. She could have cast a spell to reveal anyone else's presence but used the time to steady herself. The hand not carrying the wand placed on her breastbone, steadying herself from the inside. Back in the sitting room, she found all of them sitting on the couches. Philippa with her head resting against the wall, eyes closed and breathing deeply. Basil rubbed his face with both hands as if rinsing the exertion off of himself. He would not be an Auror, he decided that evening. Grandpa, sitting next to his granddaughter smiling softly as if nothing had happened at all. Dorcas went to get some water. She hadn't thought to check the fesfium but it confirmed that there were only two wizards in the house. She sent a quiet spell into the house behind her to determine that she was right and when she was certain Dorcas dropped her arm holding what felt like a wand made out of lead and gold and every elephant that ever existed.
She brought the glasses and a pitcher of water into the room.
"Grandpa," she raised her voice slightly, "Everything is fine. We're all safe. Here's some water,"
Philippa winced.
"Can you do something about the glass?"
Dorcas looked at the pitcher on the table and then heard it again. Dorcas hadn't even noticed, it had become background noise. Dorcas motioned for Basil to go to the kitchen and left Philippa on the couch with grandpa who was now leaning against the wall too. From where Dorcas stood she could not see that Philippa and Grandpa were holding hands and because Philippa's eyes were still closed and her head still tilted back against the wall, no one, regardless of where they were standing could see her tears cycling themselves under her eyelids.
"I thought it would be a good idea, a way to let Pippa know when someone magical came into the yard." Basil said in between muttering a spell.
"Good idea, just next time warn me about it, please," Dorcas said, her eyebrows going up to emphasize the point.
Basil shook his head up and down knowing there would not be a next time. Dorcas had been kind enough to take him on "assignment" and his nerves still weren't settled. He had no choice that he was alive during a war but he had a choice to be an Auror and no, thank you. He wasn't too proud but he was too frazzled to mention that his own spell had unnerved him. The loudness of it. Even as the window sat repaired, a still pane, he half expected it to shatter again. If he felt that way, he could not imagine how Philippa must have felt. Basil could do magic and she could not. He had not considered what it meant for a window or anything else to do that and not be able to do much else and it made him sick to think if it hadn't been them. Dorcas seemed to hold up better but she did this for a living. He could tell she was irritated though.
"You are free to go, Basil. Thank you. Please tell Lupin I'm staying here tonight."
Basil felt relieved that he didn't have to stay in the house with the loud windows and the uncertainty. What had made them go there anyway? Just recently it had been such a cozy home and now it seemed empty and eerie. Dorcas watched Basil shut the door behind him.
When Dorcas got back to the sitting room she saw Philippa talking to grandpa from across the coffee table picking up after the dishes Dorcas had just brought in.
"Basil's left," Dorcas said.
"Help me get him upstairs?"
Dorcas shook her head and with a flick of her wand grandpa lifted into the air gentle as a sheet of paper. He started to laugh. Dorcas smiled despite herself. She could feel Philippa looking at her but didn't turn to face her. She walked behind Grandpa who floated up the stairs still laughing. He motioned towards the bathroom door and she sat him gently there closing the door with another small flick of her wrist. When she heard a flush she turned on the water, he washed his hands and he floated out of the bathroom laughing all the while. Dorcas now felt better. Grandpa loved magic. Loved it. And she didn't have to do anything too showy either. In his bedroom she turned her back and with another wave he was changed into fresh pajamas and tucked in bed all of this in a matter of minutes. Grandpa was in peels now, showing his sparse but still strong, white teeth. She turned at the door.
"Goodnight Grandpa. I love you."
"And oo, Dodie," he said and made a little kissing noise after. She could here him snuggling down for the evening and laughing to himself as she went out of the room.
"Crack the door," Philippa called from the bottom of the stairs. Dorcas went down the stairs in two's well pleased with herself.
"Can you sleep here tonight?"
"That was my plan," said Dorcas.
"Are you hungry?"
"No. Are you? I can cook."
"No!" Rounded Philippa and they both laughed even as Dorcas sensed that something wasn't quite right.
Philippa went about setting the water cups and pitcher away, the blanket that had slipped from Grandpa's lap when Dorcas levitated him folded over the back of a chair. Without turning around even as she set the dishes away Philippa asked,
"When we were little, there was a man who sold popsicles down the street from here. What did we call him?" Philippa was moving rather slowly and what a strange question to ask thought Dorcas.
"Ice Pickles? No, Sock Pickles! It was Sock Pickles!" Dorcas hadn't thought of it in so long! Sock Pickles! "Why?", she asked.
Dorcas sensed Philippa relax. She inhaled and exhaled deeply, as if a switch was turned, she moved at regular speed again.
"Sock Pickles, yes. That was it." Philippa nodded to herself and turned with a smile to face Dorcas. "I had forgotten. Help me put this away and then we can go to sleep."
"Enough excitement for one night," said Dorcas. Philippa smiled an automatic, smile. A smile that didn't reach her eyes. Dorcas thought nothing of it, it had been a long night. But everything was fine; they were all fine after all. They tidied the kitchen went upstairs and got ready for bed.
It wasn't until Philippa tucked into her bed on one side of the wall and Dorcas in her bed at the other that Philippa started to say "the lights". By the time she finished the words, they were all already turned off and shortly after saying goodnight, Dorcas was sound asleep. It was as if she had not, even a few hours ago, made herself sick with worry at what she might (or might not) find when she arrived. She was asleep as if she did things like this everyday.
