As he waited for her on the sidewalk, Ben tried to imagine what the emergency could have been that would necessitate them leaving the party — but he probably never would have come up with the scenario she presented him with when she arrived. He had to wonder how she knew that, since she certainly couldn’t have known before they’d slipped away together. Risks were one thing, but she wouldn’t have just knowingly ruined herself less than a week before her wedding. That would a next-level self-destructive tendency, and Melody hadn’t ever been that kind of person.

He had to wonder, too, how this was supposed to help. Sure, they wouldn’t be there to be “exposed,” whatever that actually meant, but wasn’t disappearing together just as damning? Particularly if they weren’t the only ones who’d made use of the little side-rooms during the course of the party — it would be quite obvious why they’d left.

“Okay, we’ll go,” he agreed with a frown. “But won’t someone notice you’re gone? I don’t know how this…” is going to fix anything, he could have said, but it occurred to him midway through his sentence that he wasn’t really sure how anything could fix it, if they really were bound for exposure. They could part ways here and she could go home, maybe, and then try some memory-magic on her family to pretend she’d stayed home the whole evening, or had retired early since she was feeling off. Most likely, no one would notice his absence from a party, so long as it wasn’t tied to hers.

The only problem was that they were standing on a street corner together, and though it was late, it was not exactly private.

“Well, let’s go. We can talk after,” he said hurriedly, reaching for her hand without really thinking about it. Anywhere would be better than here, in plain view of whoever chanced to look out their window or walk by.

  

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"I'll figure it out." She said distractedly. Melody had nowhere she could reasonably take them where they wouldn't be discovered. In her haste to remove them from the party, she had created a very obvious flaw in the plan. They couldn't stay there, though. They had to create some distance between them and the party, but where? London maybe? The only places she knew of in the capital city were too heavily frequented. Fuck.

She let Ben lead her down the sidewalk, wishing her cloak had a larger hood. If someone were to spot her they'd be ruined anyway. She needed to get them off the streets, somewhere. "Ben, I don't know where to go." For all her talk about starting a new life somewhere, Melody had very little details planned out. Those plans, however, didn't include remaining in England. She couldn't very well force him to leave the country in a potion induced haze. "I don't know how far the party's spell reaches. Where can we go?"

Fuck. What if they somehow left a trace of themselves in that closet? Was there a spell that could tell who entered and left a room? The encounter hadn't exactly been the neatest, either. Was there a way the mess left behind could be traced back to them? Fuck. "I can't go home. Not until we figure this out."

  

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Home seemed like the very best place she could go, because at least at home she stopped running the continual risk of being seen or overheard by someone who would recognize the two of them, but he wasn’t going to argue with her if she didn’t think it was a good idea. She knew the situation between her family and her fiance and everything better than he did — and she had always been smarter than him, besides. So if she thought they needed to get away, away was where they would go.

“Okay — hold on,” he said, slipping his free arm around her waist. He hated side-along apparition — he had never trusted it ever since Aldous had splinched a piece of his leg off rescuing Nova from the house fire — but it was better than walking through half of Hogsmeade like this. Besides, if he only went a short distance, it should be fine… to somewhere familiar enough that he could picture it vividly.

With a pop, the two of them disappeared from the street, and were suddenly in Arthur Pettigrew’s backyard.

“Alright, keep your voice down, because if Dezzie hears us, she’ll kill me,” he muttered to Melody, without bothering to explain who Dezzie was — she would either follow or not. “What’s going on at the party? What did you hear?”

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   Aldous Crouch

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Apparition, as risky as it was, was Melody's second preferred method of transportation. She avoided it when she could, but it was far easier for her to get over that level of queasiness than the motion sickness of boats or carriages was. Still, she stayed quiet for a minute after they appeared in Arthur Pettigrew's backyard of all places to allow her stomach to settle. Ben's friendship with the man (and Arthur's vile accusations following Canada) were enough for Melody to pay attention to any mention of Arthur or his wife. There was always a chance that information regarding them would become relevant, much like now.

"The servants were smirking at people they passed coming out of the rooms. One even laughed." She hastily explained. Thinking back on the party now only made the supposed enchantments that much more obvious. Why else have conveniently placed rooms? And that weird way people couldn't make out what she said if she looked into someone's eyes? The party was a trap, possibly set by someone looking to ruin as many lives as possible. "He said something would be revealed at midnight. I didn't exactly stay to press him on the matter. What if there was some kind of spell on the closet?! Forget happiness, my life - our lives! - will be ruined."

She was panicking. Visions of her father's anger, her mother's disgust, hell even Samuel's cold frown flashed through her mind. There was no way that man would marry her if he heard of her actions at the party, and her father certainly wouldn't keep her in the house. Melody covered her face with her hands, trying desperately to think of a way out of this mess.

  

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What she’d heard wasn’t much to go on, really, so it made sense that she was panicking. “Something would be revealed” could have meant just about anything. Did someone at the party have their names, or some sort of magical image-capture of who had used the rooms? If so, getting far away from the party wouldn’t help them much. It just meant they wouldn’t be there in the immediate fallout… but if whoever heard the ‘reveal’ looked around for the two of them, they would notice immediately that they weren’t there, and they’d make their assumptions accordingly.

On the other hand, if they had gotten out from under the thumb of this enchantment by leaving, they might be able to salvage this. Whoever had been caught in the reveal would be distracting enough that someone might not notice that Melody was missing — assuming, of course, she didn’t stay missing. Ben checked his pocket watch and saw that it was a minute past midnight. This would be the perfect time for Melody to waltz back in; no one would notice that she’d disappeared for five minutes, and she’d avoid the scandal of being caught up in whatever was going on at the party.

Of course, if it was the former situation instead of the latter, sending her back into the party by herself would be akin to sending her up against a firing squad. Her reputation would be ruined, and she’d be facing her family, friends, and the consternation of strangers all alone — and he couldn’t, in good conscience, recommend that.

“Well, look, we can’t do anything until we know what’s going on,” he said, keeping his voice calm in an effort to offset her growing panic. “Maybe I can go back and see.”

Not that Ben was particularly looking forward to the idea, if everyone who was close to Melody was waiting to skin him alive or exile him to North America again — but he didn’t see a better option, at the moment.

  

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"No." He couldn't go back to the party right as the reveal occured. If their leaving didn't somehow offset the spell somehow, then Samuel would know what happened. Melody didn't know him well enough to say how her fiance would react, though she was sure it wouldn't be positive. Ben could be walking into a death trap for all she knew. Melody held onto his arm to stop him from leaving. He couldn't leave her alone in Arthur bloody Pettigrew's backyard.

Tomorrow's news might very well feature their flushed faces leaving the closet. Or worse, the details of what happened in the closet. Her thoughts raced as the panic grew. There were worse places in the world to be banished to than Canada. They could have to walk the streets of their very own hometown with the glares following them. At that point, impoverished, freezing conditions in Canada might be the better of the two options. Her hand tightened around his wrist, her eyes widening in realization at the answer.

It was so obvious.

Despite the knowledge that Ben would despise her in the morning, her demand came blurting from her lips anyway, "marry me." She couldn't be a hussy if she was his wife. He would despise her in the morning, he might even force her to annul it somehow. But, somewhere back in Wellingtonshire everyone she knew and cared about was possibly learning of her transgression. And it wasn't as though she could return and then flee again. Someone would spot her. She would be trapped, and in an even worse way than her marriage to Samuel would've left her.

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   Aldous Crouch, Reuben Crouch

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Despite her refusal, Ben was still of the mindset that he would have to go back to the party. Even as she reached out to grab his arm, his mind was racing as he tried to think of what he would need to say to convince her. They couldn’t fix this if they didn’t know what this was, so one of them was going to have to figure it out — and it could only really be him. There was still a way to salvage this; he was sure of it. They just had to find it. This wasn’t the end — he wouldn’t let it be the end.

And then — oh. What she said next momentarily took his breath away, and he felt light-headed. Was it just because she’d taken him by surprise? She had; he certainly hadn’t been expecting that. He never would have even considered it as a solution, because… well, because of everything that had taken it off the table in the first place. Where would they live? What would he do? What sort of life could they have together? How could he ever possibly hope to make her happy? But… if it was the only solution to this problem they’d found themselves in the midst of…

Would it solve this? He wasn’t even sure. He tried to think it through but felt as though his thoughts were heavy when turned in that direction, and it was hard to overcome this state of confusion. Melody had suggested it, and she was a sensible, logical person. She’d always been smarter than him. Perhaps the panic he’d heard in her voice a moment ago was giving her some sort of clarity that he wasn’t able to find. Maybe — maybe this was —

“I — ah —” he began, tripping over his words as he tried to get his thoughts into some sort of proper order. “But — your family?”

  

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The instant the potion wore off he would despise her, she was certain of that. Sober Ben didn't believe marriage was a feasible possibility for them. He thought of a marriage and thought of every reason why they couldn't make it work. Already, she could see the horror spreading across his face when he realized what she'd done. But, there was no other way. She was ruined even if he didn't marry her. Somehow, they'd figure out a way to make it work.

"My family will disown me the second they learn about what we did. The wedding will be cancelled. I'll be ruined." That was if the reveal even happened the way she was envisioning it. Could she risk it though? Her father might even force her to go through with the wedding anyway, if Samuel would still take her. No. She couldn't go home, not without some other security. "Marry me." Melody repeated steadily. Did the potion already wear off? Did her moment of clarity come too late?

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   Reuben Crouch

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When she put it like that, suddenly this idea started making much more sense. She knew her family better than he did, obviously, but even from his secondhand interactions with them years ago he couldn’t doubt the truth of what she said. And if that was really what the future held for her, then…

“Yes,” he agreed, reaching out to take both of her hands in his. There was a flush of warmth in his chest — adrenaline, he supposed. This was a huge decision, and not one that he had ever expected to find himself even considering, but… “You’re right. It’s the only way.”

If the alternative was as bad as she said, if she really was going to be disowned and left out to dry by her own family over what they’d already done and couldn’t exactly take back, then, he realized, any future he could give her would be better. He wanted her to be happy. That was all he’d wanted, for months. He still wasn’t convinced that he had the ability to do that, but — at this point it seemed like he was the best shot that she had. Merlin help them both.

“Do we need to find a church?” Ben asked, his head spinning as he tried to wrap his mind around what the next step would even be. It wasn’t as though he’d ever had reason to look into the logistics of eloping before!

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   Melody Crouch

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Melody had fantasized endlessly of what marrying Ben might look like, and never once did she consider it would be under these circumstances. The heavy weight of what the morning would bring pressed on her shoulders, dampening what should've been the happiest moment of her life. It had to be done, she reminded herself. If it wasn't Ben it would be no one and she would be worse off than even the penniless beggars. Melody released his hands, stepping back to consider how they could do this. They would have to go to Gretna Green, that was where one went when eloping, right? She knew so little of Scotland's marriage laws. If only she could steal into her room for a moment and collect her already packed belongings. There had to be a book in her collection that detailed how to proceed.

He was going to hate her.

It had to be done.

In what would likely be the strongest burst of confidence she ever experienced, Melody reached for his hands once more with a bright smile on her face. She couldn't prevent the destruction of their happiness, but she could enjoy it for however long it last. "Gretna Green. When people elope that's where they go. We'll need to go now." How to get there, though? A carriage would take too long, but they couldn't apparate to a place neither of them had ever been. "Do you still have the carpet?"

  

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The name Gretna Green rang a faint bell for Ben, but he hadn’t ever been there, nor did he know anything particularly about it. He would have gone anywhere with her, though, in that moment. Now that he’d realized she was right about everything — now that they were about to get married, despite all the odds — he would have followed her to the ends of the earth. Any other objections he’d raised or concerns he’d had were immaterial, at this point.

Ben chuckled slightly at her question. “The carpet is Art’s,” he said, nodding towards the house behind them. “I know where he keeps it, but — well, if we’re sneaking in to his house we might as well just use the floo.”

  

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Oh, thank Merlin. While she would've flown off with Ben on the carpet, the motion likely would've had her retching the instant they touched the ground. Her night on the boat was still too fresh in her mind to believe anything otherwise.

Melody looked over at the house. There were no lights shining through the curtains, but there was no guarantee the occupants were asleep. If their plan was foiled by Arthur Pettigrew of all people…well… that was an alternative. A different way out of the mess. And if her worst fears were confirmed they could still get married. At least then she could enter the marriage without the burden of guilt. "Do you think he would go investigate what happened at the party for us?" She hesitantly asked. "No one could suspect him of any wrongdoings…"

  

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Her question left Ben with something of an internal dilemma. On the surface, that did sound like the most reasonable course of action — but there were some factors at play here that Melody would know nothing about. The fact, for instance, that Ben hadn’t really mentioned to Art that he’d been in contact with Melody since that summer. Assuming Art was even home (which was something of an assumption; there were parties going on, after all, and it wasn’t really that late yet), trying to find an unobtrusive way to wake him up and explain this whole situation was… well, Ben didn’t even know where he would start to be able to convey the urgency of the situation, since Art’s typical stance on this issue, ever since Canada, was that the Princess was Bad News.

Which was to say nothing of the fact that he’d also have to contend with Dezzie.

“You said we needed to go now,” Ben reminded her. “I think getting Art involved would… take a lot more time than you think. Time we maybe don’t have to waste.”

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   Aldous Crouch

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Well, he wasn't wrong. By the time they caught Arthur up to speed on what they needed him to do the party may well be over. Once the scandal died down there would be little reason to stay. If anything, Arthur's sudden appearance might raise even more suspicion. His friendship with Ben was well known, and if they came looking for him…no. They couldn't wake him up. They had to go before they were discovered.

"Okay. Let's go." Now that she was committed to the plan, she couldn't help the rush of excitement. They would be married before the night was over. They wouldn't have to dance around one another for the rest of their lives. She wouldn't one day wake to the news of his engagement to someone else! They would find a way to make it work somehow. They would be okay.

Hopefully, anyway.

  

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