[TTD] If I can't see you, you can't see me {Alannah}

Penny went over the instructions in her brain one more time, before walking into the store. You’re to go to Thrifty Things just off Diagon Alley. Go to the third shelf on the back wall and retrieve the small dark wooden box. She had asked her boss what was in the box that she was to go and “retrieve” (which meant steal, since she wasn’t given any money to purchase it). That information, however, was on a need to know basis, and apparently Penny did not need to know. All she knew was that this particular store was known to the department for selling dark and dangerous objects. They managed to evade the consequences so far by selling the contraband in small, plain containers that the average person would not be interested in buying. Only people in the know would pick up say a plain wooden box, and buy it for bags of galleon for the precious object contained within it. And somewhere in that store was an unknown object that the Department of Mysteries wanted in their custody before the DMLE raided the store and confiscated everything inside.

Which is how Penny came to skulking around a dusty second hand shop as her first covert assignment as an Unspeakable. Up until that day Penny had only been doing research; hours and hours of pouring over books, working on translation, cracking ciphers and cross-referencing notes. Not that Penny minded; she loved to cross-reference. It’s just that she had pictured the job of an Unspeakable to be a bit more exciting. Which is why she was determined to execute this mission perfectly, and impress her bosses. After all, how hard could it be?

Thrifty Things was in many ways a typical second hand shop. There was a kind of comfortable chaos to the haphazard array of objects, and the air inside smelled pleasantly dusty, and old. Penny was delighted to see that the front of the room had shelves upon shelves of books. Some of them looked very interesting indeed, especially the section on Ancient Runes, and maybe she could just….Focus Penny! You’re not here to look at books. Still though, Penny thought it might look rather suspicious if she just made a beeline for the object she needed, so instead she made her way slowly through the shelves on the left wall, looking for all the world like a person who was just perusing the shelves of a second hand store, not looking for anything in particular.

As she pretended to examine the objects on the shelf, she took stock of the people in the store. There was the shopkeeper, who looked like a man past his prime; white hair coming out of everywhere on his head it seemed. Then there was a couple. Penny thought they were probably shopping for their first home; they looked too young to be able to afford all new things, but were examining functional, if plain home decor. There was an older woman who was now arguing passionately with the shopkeeper regarding the price of a set of scales she held in her left hand. She was standing right in front of the shopkeeper, blocking his view of the rest of the store. Perfect. Penny wondered briefly if the woman had been sent by the Department; the distraction was so perfect. Whether or not it was intentional, Penny figured she better take advantage of the distracted shopkeeper, and quickly made her way to the back shelf. Her eyes quickly scanned the shelf until she found the box that had been described to her. Looking over her shoulder again to make sure that the shopkeeper was still distracted, Penny turned over the little box. There, on the left corner was a little x mark, and Penny knew she had the right box. Should I open it? Penny’s more curious side whispered to her. What harm could it do? Well, months of training at the Department of Mysteries taught Penny that quite a bit of harm could be done opening mysterious boxes.

Penny was just in the process of slipping the box into her robes when she heard a woman right next to her. All training out the window, Penny reacted instinctively, pointing her wand in the direction of the sound and wordlessly casting stupefy. She couldn’t have anyone catching her in the act! The spell missed her target and the next thing she knew she was being tackled to the ground. The air was punched out of Penny’s lungs as the other woman’s body made contact with her own, causing both of them to crash into the shelves behind them. Just as Penny looked up towards the shelf to see if they broke anything, three separate potions bottles came crashing down around them. The green potion miraculously didn’t break on contact, but the bottles with the blue and red potions broke on the shelf just above them, the two potions mixing together before falling on both woman’s head.

Penny remembered Poppy’s potion safety tips, and immediately siphoned the potion off of her hair, clothes and face.

“Here, let me” she said, as she offered to do the same for the other woman. Not that she deserved it; what did she think she was doing tackling a person to the ground? Penny hoped that the potions weren’t too dangerous, but even as she was thinking it her vision blurred, and suddenly the floor became the ceiling….

Penny woke with a start, and immediately grabbed her wand and tried to sit up. This had the effect of feeling like there were five hammers in her head, and she promptly reached over to the side of the bed and vomited. Neon purple vomit. What happened? Where am I? Were the frantic thoughts running through Penny’s mind. She took a deep breath and the panic receded a bit, allowing her memory to flood back. The box. The potions. St. Mungo’s. Penny patted her robes and was relieved to feel that at least the box was still there. She had messed up every other aspect of her mission, but at least she had successfully retrieved the box. Penny wiped her mouth and vanished the vomit with her wand. She winced as she felt a sharp pain in her ribs, and remembered how she had been so ungracefully tackled.

Penny looked around, and sure enough the woman was in the other bed in the room. She was pretty; with long dark hair and an athletic build. Penny couldn’t quite make out the other woman’s skin color, as both of their bodies were currently stained a pale lavender. Great, just great.

What was she going to do about this woman? She was sure that she had seen her steal the box, and the last thing Penny needed was for her to rat her out. After a moment’s consideration Penny decided the best play would be to use their shared experience of accidental potion exposure to sympathize with her and hopefully distract her.

“I hope this goes away” She said, gesturing to her skin. “Any idea what those potions were? I’m Penny, by the way.”

@Alannah Dupont

Everyone knew that shopping during or on the cusp of the holiday season could be a nightmare.  However, Alannah wouldn’t have expected it to be dangerous; especially not here in a quiet thrift shop, tucked away from the worst of the bustle in Diagon Alley.  It would be a far stretch to describe the Quidditch player as ‘cultural’ or ‘academic’, so she definitely hadn’t been drawn to the store for its selection of antiques or old books, nor did she have any need for cheap housewares.  No, Alannah had simply wandered in because she was bored of the standard stores and their mass produced products.  Al didn’t even really enjoy shopping to begin with, so exploring new places was really the only way to turn it into an interesting experience. 

The shop smelled unpleasantly musty and stale to Alannah, as though no fresh air or sunlight had touched anything inside for a long time.  Some of the items were even covered with dust.  Still she eyed them with some curiosity and amusement, not really knowing what half of them were.  Wizards and their knickknacks!  Alannah spent a few minutes crouched down perusing a random assortment of second-hand Quidditch gear on a lower shelf.  None of it was any good but at least it was something she was familiar with. 

Turning around the corner of an aisle of shelves, she came across another witch browsing the wares.  Alannah wouldn’t have paid her much attention if not for a surreptitious movement which caught her eye.  Did she just slip something into her robes?  Indignant on behalf of the shopkeeper, Al moved to approach, a challenge forming on her lips.  Then she was shocked to see the unmistakable silhouette of a wand pointed in her direction. Reflexively she dodged to one side, narrowly avoiding the other witch’s spell.  What the hell?!?  Now feeling royally pissed off – and not about to let her opponent take a second shot! – Alannah lunged forward.  She wasn’t the type to mess around, so the Quidditch player made sure to drive her shoulder into the tackle.  There was a satisfying ‘ooof’ as the air was driven out of the other woman’s lungs. 

Their momentum caused them to collide with a row of shelves which shook and rocked alarmingly.  Alannah didn’t even have time to say ‘oh f*ck’ before several potions bottles came crashing down overhead, their mixed contents spraying over both women.  Al knew very little about potions, in fact it had always been her worst subject, but she understood with complete clarity that she didn’t want these potions on her.  Frantic, the brunette hurriedly tried to shake or wipe off as much of the liquid as she could.  Unfortunately, most of it had landed on her head and chest.  Her clothes were drenched and sticking unpleasantly to her skin, yet still she could feel the sliminess of it working its way under her shirt, getting between her breasts and dripping down the back of her neck. 

The other witch had set to siphoning the potion away with her wand, the sort of simple act that made Alannah very conscious of her Muggle upbringing.  Magic was never her first thought for solving problems.  Al’s (more practical) solution for her soaked clothes, was just to remove them (figuring that being naked would be better than continued exposure to unknown substances).  She’d thrown off her jacket and was half-way to pulling her shirt over her head when the other witch offered magical help.  Alannah was stubborn and pretty sure that she didn’t want anything to do with the person who had tried to jinx her just moments before.  However, she had barely got any protest out before the other witch crumpled to the floor.  Shit!  Angry though she was, Al never meant any real harm.  She tried to reach out but her arms suddenly weren’t working properly.  Her whole body felt heavy and sluggish.  Alarmingly she found herself also tipping towards the floor, hopelessly powerless to stop the momentum. 

Alannah’s vision went black. 

When next she opened her eyes, she was sitting in a ward in St Mungo’s and experiencing what felt like the worst hangover ever.  Her head was pounding as though there was a Bludger inside, ricocheting off the walls of her skull.  When she raised a hand to press against her temple, Alannah was startled to notice that her skin was light purple.  A brief review, undertaken slowly (on account of how fast movements appeared to anger the Bludger inside her head), confirmed that this unusual colouring persisted all over her body.  However, aside from the headache and the shockingly vivid vomit, she appeared otherwise unharmed.  All things considered, Alannah reckoned this was probably a pretty good outcome for accidental contact with multiple unknown potions.  Still, Al had always figured that it would be Quidditch that put her in the hospital one day, not something like this. 

Alannah pointedly tried to ignore the woman across the room, feeling none too friendly towards the shoplifter who had landed her in this situation.  All she was really interested in was getting out of hospital as soon as possible.  Yet the other woman apparently wanted to start a dialogue, calling out in a voice that felt, in Alannah’s opinion, far too casual and pleasant for the circumstances.  Alright, fine.  Let’s get some answers then.  She made no effort to conceal her hostility as she glared openly at Penny.  “No idea.  I didn’t bother to read the labels, since I wasn’t exactly planning to take a shower in them.”  Whilst the collision with the shelf of potions had in itself been an accident, Al could remember clearly how the whole thing had started.  “So, what were you trying to steal?”  She asked bluntly.  “I’m sure law enforcement will be interested to know when they get here.”  Realistically, she had no idea whether or not anyone had reported the incident to the Ministry yet and she didn’t really care.  Personally Al was more concerned about the media finding out she was there.  This was just the sort of story they would love to run about her. 

The Griffins Seeker had seen more than her fair share of bad press.  Whilst she was lucky that her Captain was a fairly understanding bloke, Alannah knew that even Harlan would eventually have a limit on how much of her drama he could put up with.  Al didn’t think that she had done anything wrong herself, but reporters never seemed to see her side of things.  It would be better if she could keep this incident quiet – but that would require the cooperation of the other ‘victim’.  With a sigh, she eased herself into a more upright position on the bed and turned a serious (but not aggressive) look upon the other woman.  “I’m Alannah.”  She offered her name to Penny in an effort to make peace before launching into her proposition.  “Look, I’ll be honest.  I just want to get out of here as soon as possible.  And the less people who know about this, the better.  If you catch my drift.”

Penny had to hold back an eyeroll at Alannah’s snark. For all Penny knew, the other woman could be a potions genius who knew exactly what potions fell on them, and then Penny would be the stupid one for not asking. Still, though, Penny was trying to get this woman to like her, so she stuffed back her own snarky response. Besides, she now had bigger things to worry about.

“Ss….steal?” Penny tried to put on an innocent face. In the back of her mind she was rehearsing her contingency story. The story she had made up on the off chance that someone would catch her stealing the artifact. Of course when she had come up with the story she never thought she would have to use it! This story required quite the display of emotions, so Penny worked on schooling her face to the right mixture of desperation, fear and pleading. In training she had learned that the best way to fake emotion was to think about something very real from her own life and let the emotions fill her from that. She thought of what would happen to her if she were caught and the department forced to clean up after her. What if she lost her job, and therefore go back to being plain, boring Penny.

“P…p…please! It’s not what it looks like. My father was muggleborn…” Always inject your lies with truth, her trainer’s voice flooded her brain. She allowed the very real panic at the thought of losing her job flood her voice, and her words came out choked and hurried.

“During the war the snatchers took everything from my house….they pawned it all off, and after four years I gave up on getting most of it back….except my father’s watch.” Penny drew in a deep, shuddering breath. Even saying the next few words out loud filled her with a kind of panic that she didn’t quite understand.

“My father died, in Azkaban.” This lie was so, so close to her truth, that she was able to almost imagine what it would feel like if her father had died in Azkaban. A very real sob burst out of her mouth. Don’t lose it Penny! You are on a mission! “My mum had given the watch to my father for their anniversary, and I just….I just know that if I could get it back to her she might get well…” At this Penny trailed off for maximum effect. She hung her head down and fake-sobbed quietly, slowly ‘pulling herself back together’.

“I won’t ask why you want to get out of here quickly, Alannah. Your secrets are your own.” She injected only a little bit of irony to this statement. She had to gain this Alannah woman’s trust, not play the blame game.

“How about I help get you out of here without anyone knowing, if you promise to keep my secret?” She held out a lavender stained arm for the other woman to shake. Hopefully her story had been realistic enough to convince the other woman.

Alannah almost bought it, almost.  It really was a great story and provided plausible motive for shoplifting from a store, plus being tragic enough to garner sympathy and deter people from asking too many questions.  Yet although Al had never been an ‘O’ student, she wasn’t dumb.  She could tell that something wasn’t adding up.  If Penny was telling the truth, why would it need to be kept a secret and why the hell had she tried to jinx Alannah in the shop?  Thieving to regain something belonging to your family was one thing, assaulting a perfectly innocent bystander was on a completely different level.  Yet Al found herself wanting to believe Penny’s words.  It was chilling to notice herself being affected by the other woman’s charm and she shivered.  Who the hell was this chick? 

It wasn’t as though Al considered herself a vigilante.  She had no interest in being a hero or fighting for justice.  Of course she’d speak out when she say someone doing something wrong, but otherwise she was happy to let Law Enforcement handle wrongdoers.  All she had intended to do was share a stern word with the apparent thief in the thrift shop, not fight her.  Alannah hadn’t intended any of this.  So it really wasn’t very important to her to know the truth.  It would make her happy just to forget about the whole incident and this subtly dangerous woman.

“You’re pretty slick, Penny.  I’ll give you that.”  Alannah stated bluntly.  The athlete wasn’t the type to pretend or try to sugar-coat.  Still, she raised her hands in a placating gesture before continuing.  “I don’t agree with your actions but I’ve decided that what you took and why isn’t my problem right now.”  Slowly shifting her legs to the edge of the bed, Al stood up shakily and hobbled across the gap.  Extending her own arm, she took Penny’s hand firmly and gave it a shake.  “Fortunately for you, our interests align.  So I won’t turn you in, if you can help me get out of here discretely.” 

Al took a moment to survey the room and consider their options.  She was still feeling rather woozy but she could walk.  Apparating seemed completely out of the question for both women though and it was highly unlikely they would just stumble across a pair of brooms.  They could always try to make it to the street and take Muggle transport, but their current oddly coloured complexions would draw too much attention.  Therefore, Floo seemed like their best and only bet.  “There have to be fireplaces around here somewhere, right?”  She asked Penny uncertainly, having no familiarity with the facilities or layout of the hospital. 

Moving to the doorway, Al peered out and was pleased to see that the corridor was empty.  “Ready when you are.”  She actually managed to grin at her strange companion.  Alannah always preferred action over talking and felt good to be making a move.  Stepping out the young witch tried to move as cautiously as possible without looking like she was sneaking.  She let Penny lead the way and they made it down several corridors without incident.  If any of the hospital staff asked, Al figured they could pretend to be looking for the cafeteria.  Fortunately, however, no one seemed too interested in what they were up to.  For a time Al could believe that she might make it out of the hospital without being recognised, but then she heard the unmistakable click-clack of high heels on the hard floor. 

Waving at Penny to wait, Alannah went ahead to check around the corner.  She poked her head out and then drew it back quickly with a barely audible exclamation of “Shit!”  Al recognised the woman heading their way and she was no Healer, she was a reporter.  There was no way the Griffin’s Seeker could count on her purple skin as a disguise.  If that reporter saw her, she could be in for a lot of trouble and a lot of awkward explanations she really didn’t want to have to get into with her team.  “Quick!  Help me hide!.”  Alannah hissed at Penny as she tried to squeeze (unsuccessfully) behind a nearby pot plant   

Penny kept her face neutral, even as the other woman made it clear that she did not believe her. Either her lying skills left a lot to be desired, or this woman was a lot more observant than Penny gave her credit for. After all, why would she think that someone who preferred physical violence would be observant? She wasn’t about to give the other woman the satisfaction of knowing that she caught Penny in a lie, but she also wasn’t about to insist that she was telling the truth. If the other woman was willing to go along with her plan despite thinking she was a liar, well that was good enough for Penny.

“Yes, floo would be best. I know the closest fireplace; I’ll take you there.” This was only half true. Well, really not true at all. Penny didn’t know St. Mungo’s well at all, but she could give a good guess as to where the nearest floo was. She figured it was like the ministry; most of the fireplaces being down in the main entrance. Given the amount of transferring of patients between wards, though, she estimated that there was probably a fireplace in each level. Penny made sure to cover her skin as much as possible with her robes and cloak, stopping short at putting the hood of her cloak on; she felt that would look rather suspicious. Instead, she released her hair from her ponytail, and let the long dark strands fall around her face, keeping most of it hidden from view.

Penny raised an eyebrow when Alannah took it upon herself to look out into the corridor. Did this other woman have stealth training as well? Penny couldn’t count on that, so she put herself in front of the other woman. Penny kept her wand up the length of her sleeve; ready to use, but mostly hidden. The corridor was mostly dark and quiet; they must have been out for a few hours, since it was clearly night time. She figured the fireplace had to be at the entrance clearing to the floor, where the reception desk would be. The problem was that St. Mungo’s was like a maze, and Penny was mostly guessing as she turned the corner of one corridor, and then another, and another. She relied on another bit of her training that taught her that whenever she was lost in a building her best bet was to keep turning left. Still, she walked quickly, and with confidence, trying to ignore the pounding in her head. The corridors were getting larger, and she started seeing signs pointing to the magical lift, so Penny felt confident they were almost free. Relaxing slightly, she slowed her pace, allowing the other witch to get in front of her.

She was about to suggest they take a quick break, when she saw Alannah waving at her to stop. Clearly the other woman had seen someone, as she then asked Penny to help her hide. Penny heard it too; the clack clack of high heels on the hard floors. Penny took quick stock of the room, and very quickly realized that there was no place to hide. There was no way, though, that she would be caught by whomever was coming towards them. She didn’t trust the other woman any farther than she could throw her, which was not very far at all.

Penny put a finger up to her mouth, signaling the other woman to be quiet. She lifted her wand towards the direction of the heels clacking against the floor, letting Alannah think she was going to cast a spell in that direction. In the last minute she spun her wand towards Alannah, and wordlessly cast silencio, and then stupefy. She caught the woman as she hit the floor, and for a moment guilt flooded her. Still though, she couldn’t risk being exposed. The heals came closer still, and Penny knew she had to act fast. She took the box out of her robes and muttered gemino. That would replicate the box itself, but not the contents within. She stuffed the box into the other woman’s robes, and stood up. Now if Alannah decided to accuse her of stealing, she would look like the guilty party instead.

“Help! Help! This patient has collapsed!” Penny heard the heels coming towards her now in a run, and she bent over Alannah’s body again, keeping her face out of view of the witch coming towards her.

“I think she was trying to leave, but she’s not well. Please stay with her; I’ll go get a healer!” And with that Penny raced down the corridor, leaving Alannah on unconscious on the floor.

[out]

There was nowhere to hide.  The single pot plant Alannah had attempted to huddle behind would be lucky to cover about 30-40% of the athlete’s body – at best – and really did little more than make her look silly.  Al wasn’t the most skilled spell-caster nor was she really in the right frame of mind to summon up any stealth charms, so it was a relief when Penny confidently took charge of the situation.  Still, the way the other woman pointed her wand in the direction of the approaching reporter made Al a little uneasy.  The necessity for silence meant that she couldn’t ask what Penny intended to do and so could only hope that the witch wouldn’t cast anything worse than maybe a Confundus Charm.  There wasn’t any need to do anything more severe but it was difficult to trust to the judgement of the kind of person who would steal and try to attack an innocent bystander in the process.  Alannah waited, poised and ready to intervene if necessary.

Suddenly, unexpectedly, Alannah found herself staring at the business end of Penny’s wand.  Confusion promptly gave way to fury as the intentions of her temporary ally became clear.  She’d known there was something off about this woman, still Al had never expected this – this betrayal!  Lips moved to form a curse (of the Muggle variety) but no sound came forth.  Though struck silent, Alannah had reacted quickly; one arm starting the long swing towards Penny in order to batt the wand from the other woman’s hand.  Too slow.  Too slow.  It all happened within seconds.  Even with a Seeker’s finely honed reflexes, Al had no chance to get within range of the witch before the second spell was cast.  It struck her square in the chest and she felt it ripple through her  along with a sense of horror.  Then the magic took effect and Al dropped like a puppet with her strings cut.

Most of what Alannah would come to know of what happened next would be from reading an article in the newspaper the very next day…

/end