WHO: Emmeline and Caradoc!
WHAT: Reunited!
WHEN: Before the holidays!
WHERE: A park near her childhood home in Liverpool

( Caradoc’s brow furrowed, and he felt an uncomfortable itch begin to bloom under his skin. )

Caradoc slammed the front door shut purposely, letting the loud noise announce his arrival to the inhabitants within. Well, really, one inhabitant within, as the other had presumably been asleep for the past hour; but Andrew would not be woken by familiar door activity. Emmeline, on the other hand, the mother of his child, the witch he had been living with for the past two years, the one Caradoc had restarted his life with, she would definitely notice.

Notice, and then proceed to ignore him like she had been for the past couple of weeks, but notice nonetheless.

Letting out a long sigh, Caradoc proceeded slowly through the front hallway, stopping only to toss his gloves and scarf on the side table. It was cold out, and it had taken him much longer this time to locate Emmeline and Andrew (there were a few of houses in possession that Emmeline could choose to ignore him in), so he found his patience properly tested. It had only been two days in which they had been out of contact, and Caradoc didn't truly believe it was in Emmeline's best interest in knowing what he had been up to in France, for---

He had almost walked by her, with how quietly she had been sitting in the study. Stopping abruptly, Caradoc watched Emmeline from the doorway. She appeared unfazed, continuing to write whatever it was she was writing (a letter, perhaps?) as if she continued to be the only body in the room. After a few silent passing moments, his chin dropped to his chest as his brow furrowed.

"How much longer are you planning on keeping this up?" he asked, one of his hands waving idly around the room. To what he was referring, of course, wasn't an object in the room, or her writing, but the small detail that every night she would, instead of staying home, move to one of their various decoy houses without him, leaving him to either stay home alone or go on a hunt for his family. At first he had let Emmeline do as she wished, as a necessary means to state her displeasure over him, but now it had just become irritating.

"Just so I know."

Could it really have been five years?

Emmeline had been organizing some paperwork, files, letters, old school essays because somehow their closet had become a disaster zone. Somehow meaning that her one year old son Andrew had managed to get his hands on the various boxes and thought it had been quite fun to spill their contents all over the floor. Emmeline had found him looking very pleased with himself and gnawing on an envelope. Children could be so precious.

"Don't do it," Emmeline muttered as her hand gripped the back of Andrew's shirt as he tried to scale the dresser drawers of the closet. Her eyes were focused on the letter in her other hand, something she hadn't seen in a very, very long time. Five years it must have been. Her acceptance letter into the St. Mungo's healing program, still rather crisp because she had tucked it away immediately to keep in tact. Not that Emmeline did much reminiscing of her last few years in England as most of her memories were fraught with pain and despair, but this had been a happy day for more reasons than one.

Andrew stopped struggling against her hold for a moment and Emmeline looked over at him. His bright blue eyes were focused toward the door of the closet, and a second later he let out a shrill shriek of delight. Emmeline recognized the excitement in his voice and she let him hurry off to greet Caradoc, who must have just arrived home.

"I'm in the closet!" she called after, hearing footsteps and doors shutting. Five years?

It had taken Caradoc a very long time to finally come to his senses, but it did eventually happen. There had been multiple stages that had gotten him to this lucid state nearing twenty-four hours later, and he couldn't quite tell which was worse. Not understanding how this had all happened, or understanding too much. Either way, he had found that after his little chat with the Goldsteins, Caradoc had continued to find himself here, pacing in the front foyer area of their house. In his right hand was the blue vile, an item he had been clutching since awakening from his comatose sometime around noon. It--- while catching random glances at it still made his heart jump and his stomach drop, purposely looking down at it helped put his mind on the right track, in perspective, whenever it wandered. It was-- important that things did not progress like the night before when he finally did see Emmeline again. He knew--- he could breathe again, he had been able to think and process, making this news... not exactly easy to swallow, but at least something he could react reasonably to.

But Emmeline had not come home all night. It was quickly becoming dark now, leaving wandering thoughts in the back of his mind whether he should go out and start looking for her. He knew that she would be more than capable in protecting herself, but the thought of his pregnant girlfriend out alone in the city was an extremely unsettling thought to Caradoc.

He stopped, realizing that was never a thought he never thought he would have to think until about twelve hours ago. But that--- he shook his head, as if to push it out of his conscious for the time being. One issue at a time.

Running his head through his hair, Caradoc stopped to check his journal one more time. There was nothing new, and he suddenly became unable to wait here another minute. What was he doing, waiting here like some helpless--- thing? He was--- he was Caradoc Dearborn, he did not wait for things, he took charge, he controlled--- the sound of a key turning a lock filled the hallway, and Caradoc quickly snapped toward it. Caught between wanting to jump toward the door and to wait where he was, he awkwardly stuck his right arm out straight, as if showing off what he was holding in his hand for display.

WHO: Emmeline Vance and Caradoc Dearborn
WHAT: A big surprise!
WHERE: Their house
WHEN: Last night!

( Everyone knew how to read a pregnancy test. )

She had always thought that daydreaming was for those who couldn't handle their thoughts, but Emmeline had found much of her time spent in her new life staring out the window and into the street, getting lost in various dreams and ideas. She wasn't completely satisfied with this new habit of hers, but it seemed to make the days go by faster, and the further away from her past in England, the better, she liked to think.

Emmeline idly opened and closed the wedding invitation that had arrived last week from Davy Gudgeon as she continued to stare. She still hadn't responded, but she was sure she was going to go. Mostly because it would give her a chance to visit Anneliese, and make sure that Juliet wasn't plotting Nott's death. The few aspects of her past back in England still called to her, giving her some sort of sense of responsibility. Emmeline was sure that's what she missed. As much as she wanted to get away from everything that had tortured her these last five years, here in New York there was no sense of...she didn't feel any urgency. That was supposed to be a good thing, wasn't it? But she'd lived with that tense sensation shaking her very bones for as long as she could remember and it was hard to become accustomed to not having to...well, she supposed...worry.

Her eyes followed a couple walking hand in hand on the sidewalk and a smile slowly crept onto her face, her braided hair falling out of its twist as she let her head rest against the window pane. Her legs stretched across the window seat and she continued to twist the invitation around in her hands, not hearing Caradoc enter the bedroom behind her.

She wasn’t sure how long she’d been on the floor in the hallway of her flat. It had been long enough for Dedalus, Brad, and Elphias to come to her door, trying to bang it down but with no response from her. Long enough for the teapot she’d put on to start shrieking in the background, only to begin to shake and boil over onto the floor of the kitchen. Max had been let out early this morning, when she’d gotten the paper, and had stopped his whining to come, having given up on catching his owner’s attention.

How long ago had Augusta come and taken Neville away? How long ago had it been since Emmeline had picked up the Prophet and read, in blaring bold letters that Frank had been attacked and committed to St. Mungo’s, the severity of his injuries unknown at this moment?

Augusta had basically told her that he wasn’t coming back. Emmeline could barely remember the woman bursting into her flat, or what she had said, but the stern words she did recall included the fact that Frank wasn’t coming back. He wasn’t dead, but he wasn’t coming back. Emmeline had little time to process anything when Augusta swooped Neville up and proclaimed that it wasn’t safe for the boy to be around any former Order of the Phoenix members, even Emmeline. The war would never be truly over, so Neville had to be kept away from anyone that could bring trouble. And--that was it. She was gone, and she’d taken Neville. Emmeline had tried to stop her, her eyes were red and her face blotchy from the tears she’d sobbed as she tried to convince Augusta to let her take Neville, but it was to no avail. That was it. He was gone, Frank was gone.

She’d tried to make it back to the kitchen, to owl Caradoc who would probably have no idea of what was going on; the prophet wasn’t sent to her old home, his hiding spot, to avoid suspicion, so how could he know? How could he know what had happened without her telling him? Emmeline had tried to make it to the kitchen, to at least get her journal, but she’d stumbled into a side table and had dropped to the floor, unable to force her legs to move. She sat awkwardly between the legs of the table and stared into the darkness of her flat, wondering what on earth would ever be able to make her want to move again.

Who: Caradoc Dearborn & Emmeline Vance
When: November 1, 1981 [3 AM]
What: finding out You-Know-Who's gone

( He’s gone, Caradoc----Voldemort----he’s dead, he’s gone )

Emmeline slowly made her way up the basement stairs of her childhood home, having apparated into the safe area of the house. All the windows were shut and curtains were drawn, but it was still the only entrance that wouldn’t catch anyone’s eye. When you were hiding a man who had supposedly been dead for nearly two years now, it was important to keep that kind of secrecy. She pushed open the door of the basement to peer out. Emmeline hadn’t been back into the house since she and Anneliese had moved out before the end of seventh year, and it made her stomach twist to have to walk its halls again.

Not only did the house have the depressing memories of her lack of a childhood, but the fights she’d gotten into here with one Will Jugson still plagued her and Emmeline rushed up the stairs and passed the living room where their last (and final) confrontation had taken place.

“Caradoc?” she called out softly. She didn’t actually know if he’d be here. He’d been very sporadic with his visits since the disappearances, and while Emmeline hadn’t been as readily available as she’d like, she honestly had no idea what he could be up to. It worried her to no end--she hoped that he wasn’t trying to dig up past connections to help the missing...which sounded incredibly selfish, but Emmeline couldn’t stand the idea of Caradoc risking his life again.

She peered into her old bedroom. Emmeline let out a breath and crossed to her dresser, one she’d had since she was eleven. There were still some old belongings sitting upon it, and she found a ribbon to twist into her hair at the base of her head.

“Dear, you need to get some sleep--look at those purple bags!” her mirror tutted. Emmeline frowned; she remembered why she hadn’t brought the damn thing along.

She had not done many rash or stupid things since Caradoc had disappeared the first time. As Emmeline ducked through the open doors of the ministry lift as a custodian boarded, hiding under her invisibility cloak, she figured it was about time. Caradoc was back, that meant it was time to start making ridiculous decisions and jumping into things she could probably not get out of by herself. Emmeline didn't know how she managed to keep her heavy breaths hidden from the custodian as the elevator lowered and twisted itself down the floors of the ministry, but she thanked whatever song he had stuck in his head that had him humming loud enough not to hear her.

Emmeline had nearly splinched herself when Archie's patronus had arrived. After his accident last year during the earthquake, and with all the mess that was going on (he was a father now, her favorite uncle was a father), she had thought it would be for the best to teach him how to send a messenger patronus. Emmeline had hidden the lesson under the thin veil of having read it in a book and found it interesting, because she knew it would not take much for Archie to question her intentions, but it would take even less for him to be excited about learning the rather difficult bit of magic.

Bottom floor, bottom floor. Emmeline reached into her pocket and pulled out a small vial of a molten gold liquid. For the last birthday Caradoc had been around for, he had provided her with a small dosage of Felix Felicis, claiming that he had done a few illegal things to obtain the potion, and that she should only use it for something of great importance as she was constantly getting into trouble and should not waste it on a trivial mission. Emmeline hadn't felt the need until this night, and she quickly drank half the vial, stuffing the rest in her pocket in hopes of being able to give it to her uncle.

Ooh. She straightened up and felt a great wave of energy pass over her. Tonight was going to be a good night! She nearly skipped out of the lift, and if she'd been a second late she would not have noticed the cloaked figure heading into a door that was clearly a classified room. If she hadn't hurried out of the lift as fast as she had, she would not have overheard the password, 'Lenore.' Ahh, how lucky.

IN MINISTRY---BOTTOM FL--GET HELP--SOO--

Who: Emmeline Vance & Caradoc Dearborn
What: they are a normal?
Where: Amsterdam!
When: today
Status: continuing in comments

( Caradoc would be able to handle a raccoon, right? )

Who: Emmeline Vance & Caradoc Dearborn!
What: AHHH
When: This morning!

( She had every reason to believe that this was a trap and that he was going to strangle her after he seduced her, but--- )

As Jonas revved up for the last song of the day, Kobe smiled brightly at the crowd. The critics had been wrong. It was a peace rally that had gone off without a hitch and no sign of death eaters, anywhere! The extra security must really be doing its job, and everyone was having a blast. She'd even seen some aurors bouncing around to the music, too! Kobe was incredibly proud of her husband, and she looked up to the clear blue sky with a wide, toothy grin.

It faded slightly, however, as some dark clouds began to roll in over the park. Remarkably fast clouds, which didn't seem natural and were already thundering loudly. The weather report had claimed they would have clear skies all day, so this was strange and----Kobe slammed her hands over her ears as the loudest roll of thunder clapped itself over the park. Immediately the clouds seemed to open up and rain began to pour down on the crowd like buckets. Well--if bad weather was the worse of their problems, they'd done a pretty good job, right?

Kobe gasped as a bolt of green lightening shot through the crowd, followed by the terrified screams of the concert goers.

"No, nonono----" she let out from the side of the stage. Where had they all come from? The bloody sky? Kobe started towards Jonas, to pull her husband off the stage because while they had met during a catastrophe, she really did not feel like enduring another one, "Jonas!" she screamed, but was thrown off balance as the stage began to creak and shake as if an earthquake was beginning to rumble underneath.

Peace didn't stand a chance, these days.