July 5th, 1893 — The Florist Potts', Hogsmeade

Alice was still in her mediwitch robes when she rushed through the Potts' shop. Floo powder dusted her hair and swirled about in her wake as she anxiously searched for Calla. The letter had taken a long time to reach her, far longer than it would've taken to fly from Bartonburg to High Street, and Alice had required the better part of an hour to comprehend its contents. Sloane was presumed dead. Sloane, Calla's best friend from childhood (possibly longer, Alice had never heard the story of how they met), was gone.

She ought to have gone to Edison first, or perhaps even the Bixby house to pay her respects to Wallace, or anywhere but here. Her relationship with Calla wasn't perfect these days, it hadn't been since December and Calla's confession. They weren't at odds by any means, but there was a certain level of awkwardness that carried through their interactions. They were working through it (however silently, as Alice had never addressed that conversation again) and there was progress being made. It was just...not the same.

Whether or not it was the same no longer seemed to matter as Alice tore through the shop silently searching for Calla. It didn't need to be the same for Alice to recognize Calla's need for a friend, for her to understand the gravity of this loss. "Calla?" She called as she entered the greenhouse, her shoulders sagging in relief as she spotted the Hufflepuff digging in one of the back beds. She rushed towards her friend and sank onto the soft dirt besides her. "Calla, are you alright?"

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Amazing set by Bee!

She'd returned from her internship earlier in the day - it'd been a long day, mostly cleaning up from the storm the day before - and had decided to go ahead and do her greenhouse chores before she cleaned up. Besides the greenhouse always calmed her down no matter what. It was like a magical little land where if she was there everything just had a way of being okay. It was calm, quiet, and her wn space. Or at least it was the three until a bustle of noise and the door all but slammed open. Calla looked up, prepared to chastise which ever sister it was only to find not one of her sisters but a ruffled Alice... who looked a bit like she'd seen a ghost.

She hadn't been expecting Alice? Had she? Or more important, had Alice been expecting her? The past few months had been uneasy between them after Cslla had chosen the brilliant time of right after Alice told her about dating Ned to realize her own crush on Alice... aloud. But the two still were close enough she ought to know if something had happened in her friends life to get her so worked up. But... it almost seemed like Alice expected something to be wrong with Calla.

"Of course I'm okay. Why wouldn't I be?"

  

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Calla didn't know.

Alice instantly regretted her haste in searching. She despised every second she spent anxious and frantic, because it meant she was now here and about to be the one to either watch another ominous owl arrive or be the one to shatter Calla's heart.

Taking a deep breath, Alice drew back and rested uncomfortably in the dirt. She had to face death and grieving families every day, but never like this. She was never the one forced to relay the news of tragedy to someone she cherished so deeply. Alice opened and closed her mouth thrice, each time the words failing to rise from her throat. Sloane is dead. She attempted the first time. It's Sloane, something terrible happened. The second. She's gone. The third. But each sentence was even harder to form than the last.

Sloane was gone. And Calla didn't know.

"I - It's -" she faltered again and looked sharply away from Calla as she felt tears sting her vision. She loved Sloane, had slept besides her for five years, had even kissed her two Christmases ago, and yet it would be nothing in comparison to Calla's lost. She couldn't cry, not here, not now. After two more deep breaths, Alice stiffened her spine and attempted to draw on the calm taught to her at work. "Did any owls arrive for you?" She asked gently instead, her focus returning to her best friend's face.

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Amazing set by Bee!

With each attempt to speak Calla sobered. If Alice of all people was struggling to say something after asking if she was okay that surely meant something horrible had happened. "Mmm not that I know of but I also haven't been in the house yet. I came straight out here when I got home from the zoo. The maid typically collects letters from owls if we aren't home so there could be something but I wasn't expecting anything." With her return home, the two girls saw each other frequently enough their correspondence had slowed "So I didnt check."

"What ever is wrong, Alice? Just tell me won't you? Surely it isnt anything to bad."

  

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The death announcements that Alice had had to make thus far in her career were all at particularly gruesome scenes. There was a man whom splinched himself to pieces, and a teenager who was practicing potions illegally and the cauldron exploded. In those circumstances, her announcement was more of a formality than anything, as there could be little doubt in those cases. But there was no gruesome scene here, no sobbing families or anything else to help Alice keep her focus.

There was just Calla and the innocence Alice was about to shatter.

"It's Sloane." She managed eventually, her voice steady despite her shaking hands. "She had an accident yesterday. They're —" again, Alice felt the burn of tears in her eyes, and again she had to stop herself short as to not put her grief before Calla's. After a short pause, she managed to continue, "they're saying she's dead."

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Amazing set by Bee!

"An accident? Oh no, is she okay? What happened? Calla questioned, not quite processing the entirety of what Alice had said. They were witches. Alice probably saw a dozen things a day muggles wrote off as fatal- probably - and she was a medwitch. "What hospital is she in? We should go vis-" Her voice cracked as it cut off and the moment Calla realized what Alice had said was visible across her face.

Sloane... was gone?

Sloane couldn't be dead. She was a fixed part of Calla's life. Like the greenhouse. And the shop. And Momma and her sisters. Even Jack. Sloane had been there as long as she could remember. She couldn't not be there. Calla didn't know how to exist without Sloane.

  

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Alice could see the second her news registered in Calla's mind. Her expression broke, the panic giving way to shock and grief in a split second. Two minutes ago, Calla had been gardening without a care in the world. That was before. Now, much to Alice's immense heartache, they were in the after.

"Mrs. Bixby sent me a letter, she said Sloane is dead. I don't have many more details than that." Alice continued to explain gently.

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Amazing set by Bee!

She wanted to cry. She wanted to scream. She wanted to hit something. Part of her even wanted to tell Alice to leave so she could pretend she hadn't heard what the other girl had just told her.  But she didn't-  couldn't - do any of those. She could only sit there, the metallic clang of the dropped trowel echoing throughout the greenhouse. It was like she couldn't even breathe. Like her chest was constricting.

"But... but... I just saw her Monday. At work. She... she was fine!" Calla's voice went high towards the end and her fists clinched in the dirt below.

  

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"I know." Alice replied as she reached forward to hold Calla's hand. "They said she was struck by lightening. I don't know the full story yet, I came here as soon as I got the letter." In hindsight, Alice wished she had gone anywhere but here. Anywhere that would've had her avoid the devastation on Calla's features.

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Amazing set by Bee!

Calla watched mutedly as Alice took her hand. She didn't fight it but didn't help either, just letting Alice take the dead weight. She noted dully that she didn't feel the normal pins and needles she got whenever the medwitch touched her. It felt muffled. Everything she touched and heard did. Like she was drowning in the Black Lake. Her shock the giant squid pulling her under. She couldn't breathe.

She couldn't breathe.

Everything was tight, constricting. Panicked, grey eyes turned to Alice. Alice could fix this. Alice could fix everything.

  

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Without knowing what else to do, Alice surged forward and embraced Calla in a tight hug. The news was broken, the ground beneath their feet was shattered. What was one meant to do when their best friend was experiencing a horrible shock? (Later, Alice would realize that she, too, was in shock.) "I'm so sorry." She murmured. Sorry for her loss, sorry for having broken the news, sorry for barging in on Calla's grief. "I'm so so sorry."

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Amazing set by Bee!

Alice's arms came around her and the dull pressure on her hand shifted to a grounding weight around her chest. Finally moving, she reached out, her hands curling up to clutch Alice's robes - mindless of the dirt she was now getting on the other girl's clothing - like she was gripping onto a lifeline. Calla's weight shifted and she crashed into Alice, trembling but unable to cry.

"Stay," she croaked, "Please don't go."

How could she ever let anyone go again when she'd let Sloane go for the last time and had been so clueless.

  

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Alice held Calla tight, suddenly unsure of what she was meant to do or say. How were they meant to exist in this new world without Sloane's bubbly presence? None of this made any sense, Alice felt as though she was trapped in some sort of never ending nightmare.

"I'm not going anywhere," she murmured into Calla's hair. "I promise. I'll stay." For what else was there to do now?

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Amazing set by Bee!