May 9th, 1888 - Black's

August was sat at Black's in what could best be described as the corner. His good leg jittered up and down. He came here to avoid his sister - who, yes, was probably breaking into his house as he sat here - after sending Lysander and the nanny to visit his mother in the country. He brought a case file to Black's but it remained unopened. All he could think about was that newspaper headline, that dangerous opener.

Charlotte Potter Returns from the Dead.

Before this, he started to think that she left again, or that she was not going to reveal herself. But she had. Oh, she had - and now all he could think of was her eyes staring up at him from the paper. How was she going to make this work? Had the Potter widow found out? Would she send him a letter again?

Their son had her eyes. Oh, he had her pale skin and sharper canines, but he had her eyes. August was still lost in thought when, finally, it happened:

"Weren't you engaged to her?"

August's eyes slid to attention, moving from the wall to the man speaking to him. He flashed a smile at him. "Before she died."

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this thread is plot important!

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set by Bree

Albert would have usually avoided mention of the discovered Miss Charlotte Potter at Black's — that was, if August Echelon-Arnost hadn't been in his company that afternoon. While he'd tried to mind his own business and refrain from asking any personal questions while in his company, it was the other gentleman's mannerisms — staring mindlessly with an unreadable expression — which finally prompted him to ask: "Weren't you engaged to her?"

The answer was yes, of course, because Albert had a stellar memory and was never wrong. The exception was things that he didn't care about, but at much as he hated to admit it, gossip pertaining to people he was likely to interact with was something he did care about. He didn't want to go around socializing with "unseemly" sorts.

"I presume you haven't had the chance to speak with her, yet?" As much as the idea of being in the company of a vampire repulsed him, he imagined any gentleman would like to speak to a fiancee he'd long thought was dead.

  

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This was not the first time that August wished that Albert was Thom. This was, actually, almost always his first thought when he was faced with Albert - but he would take Albert over David, and Albert wasn't a dick, and he really just wanted someone to talk at.

"No," August lied, "I thought she was dead until - well, the article."

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set by Bree

Albert quirked a brow. The response seemed almost uncertain, which made him question—

"And ... do you plan to speak with her?" he asked expectantly. He wasn't even sure where Echelon-Arnost would find the vampire chick. Were they keeping her at the Ministry? The hospital? Had she gone off to wherever vampires ran off to? He didn't know; the worst he'd been involved with was veela.

  

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This, then, was a question that August was actually seeking the answer to.

"I don't know," he said, "It was all a long time ago."

He wanted to see her again. He did. It had been years and he had journals full of things he had wanted to say to her. But it was a long time ago. They were different people now - in that she was not a person anymore, and he had to put Lysander first, because that was what you sometimes had to do as a parent.

"What would you do?"

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set by Bree

Echelon-Arnost was asking for his advice, which, while amusing, was also a little panic-inducing. How was he supposed to advise a man on how to handle his lost fiancee when he'd never been in a similar situation? (Well, it was more of a matter of giving good advice, because Albert definitely had his own opinions).

"Depends," he started with a shrug. "You don't want to get her hopes up—" Unless Echelon-Arnost was planning on running off with the leech-woman, but that revelation would prompt an entirely different conversation. "—but continuing to pretend she's dead might make you look bad, to both her and the public to some degree."

  

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Albert Pettigrew's advice more or less meant fuck-all, but was more coherent than he expected to get from most people, and thus appreciated. It was also significantly more sober than the advice he could expect if he talked to Leon about this. Merlin.

August smiled wryly. "I never had her declared dead, so my pretending wouldn't change much," he said, "That would be the brothers. Who are both dead now. Go figure." This all would have been much easier if Darcy or Bennet Potter was still alive to cheerfully have their family reunion.

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set by Bree

The matter seemed, in Echelon-Arnost's mind, a matter of emotion rather than logic — something Albert definitely couldn't sort out for him. Albert himself would be likely to pretend as if she'd never returned while facing the public, but if public appearance was all the other man was going for, he imagined the right thing to do wouldn't even be a question.

"Will going to see her make things more difficult for you?" He was about to add, because her chance for a happy life is also ruined, but yours isn't, but decided last-minute that that would be just a little harsh.

  

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August snorted. "If she's in the Forbidden Forest, then it seems likely," he said, "But who's to say?"

Somewhere in Wellingtonshire, Elsbeth was probably having an aneurysm.

"Have you ever met a vampire, Mr. Pettigrew?" August asked, raising an eyebrow at Thom's younger brother. Maybe this, too, was why he was having a hard time taking the advice seriously - this was Thom's younger brother. August remembered bullying (well, maybe that was Leon) the younger Pettigrew boys as children.

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Albert rolled his eyes. He had no desire to handle rudeness, especially when he was at least trying to be helpful. He could've been harsher and much more blunt with his advice, but no, he'd tried that sensitive thing for a moment.

"It hardly matters if I've met one," he retorted. "If you couldn't find her anyways, I don't understand why you're trying to figure anything out. Let it go. Move on. Be a man."

  

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And this would be why he wished all the male Pettigrews were actually Thom, thank you. August shrugged his shoulders. "I suppose that's a course of action," he said dryly, "If it was recent. This was '83, after all. The past has a way of dredging itself back up."

If the past was turned into a vampire and returned to achieve political goals, that was.

"You're more likely to run into her than I am, anyways, what with the Ministry."

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Albert's brows moved up on his forehead, and suddenly he couldn't resist smiling — even if it was a bit antagonistically.

"Well if she does show up at the Ministry, would you like me to point her in your direction? Send an owl for you? Now I'm going to need a course of action," he snickered mean-spiritedly.

  

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August rolled his eyes and regretted that 'your brother likes me better than you' was not a polite comeback. Or even a particularly useful one.

"Ha ha," he said, in his snarkiest tone, "I suppose you could always take measurements of her teeth, you know, for research."

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Well any hope of a polite conversation had all but vanished, leaving Albert and August to bicker amongst themselves.

"Oh yes, I imagine she'd be plenty useful. All our other specimens have been so far," he returned. "I imagine there's more than just her teeth they'll want to check on while they're at it."

  

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Probably he could not tell Albert Pettigrew to fuck off in public, no matter how much he wanted to.

"She's taller than you, you know," August said instead, "So I'm not sure how well that would go for you."

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Albert snorted. "I personally have no idea to put my hands—" Or any part of him, really. "—on one of those creatures." He'd never personally come in contact with a corpse, but he imagined a living corpse (which was really what a vampire was, he thought) would feel similarly clammy and gross. (And he definitely had no interest in necrophilia.)

"But if she's not careful, she might find herself facing someone who has more than a few experiments in mind. There's a reason the vampires steer clear of the Ministry unless it's necessary." It was baseless fear-mongering, really, but now he was just looking for a reaction.

  

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