Stay all-in right now
Salt drips from her brow
No more days without
Makes me feel so right
I can do no wrong
We'll keep going strong

June 26th, 1890 — Ballroom, this event

Alfred thought he might die before the evening was over, and not from happiness. The curse that had hovered over his head for most of spring may have been contained and neutralized, but tonight he was pursued by a very different sort of danger, and one that felt far more real. He just had to keep telling himself that this party wouldn't last, and once it was over, things would be better. That was the whole point, after all. He was getting what he'd wanted for the past year and change. After tonight, he'd be publicly courting Zelda, and able to spend (chaperoned) time with her in public without having to worry about ruining her reputation or running afoul of her family.

Except that he'd already run afoul of her family, and the events of tonight were not likely to ingratiate him to any of them. He'd been counting the number of Fisks in attendance since he'd arrived, and now he felt like he was constantly aware of them even when he was doing his best not to track them through the ballroom. Of course, them being there was sort of the point — Alfred and Zelda needed people to recognize that they were courting in a venue that no one from the family could readily dispute in order to have any hope of success here — but it did seem as though it increased the risk, too. Any one of them could have decided to make a scene at any moment, and what would he and Zelda do then?

So far, Zelda had done most of the work when it came to disseminating the news; from arrival, she had been flitting about from acquaintance to acquaintance letting them know that he was accompanying her tonight, which conveyed the degree of formality they were going for without being, at least in his opinion, technically a lie. Alfred ought to have been doing that, too, but the idea of trying to strike up a conversation with someone he didn't know well and then somehow direct it towards the subject of his love life was... mortifying, to say the least. Besides, this was a Ministry party, with Ministry guests — it wasn't like he actually even knew that many people here, except as distant connections through old school friends. So mostly he'd just stood around feeling awkward and drinking, until it was time to start dancing.

They'd agreed to dance together a rather absurd amount of times that evening. It would be noticeable to anyone who was paying attention, whether they'd heard Zelda's news through the grapevine or not, and the rumor mill would handle the rest after the event had concluded. It was all simple in theory. They'd done two dances together already, and Alfred had just focused on his footwork and tried to push his anxiety that this was all going to crash and burn before the night was over to the side. It wasn't like there was an option for them to back out, now — in for a penny, in for a pound, as the Muggles said.

"Do you think any of your family have heard yet?" he asked Zelda just as the dance was finishing, with unconcealed anxiety in his tone.

(OOC: @"Zelda Fisk"; open to anyone who might be at this party; invitational Konstantin Fisk Roslyn Ross Evander Darrow)

The following 1 user Likes J. Alfred Darrow's post:1 user Likes J. Alfred Darrow's post
   Elias Grimstone

---

MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER

This was their only move, and Zelda had really leaned into it, telling anyone who asked that Mr. Darrow was accompanying her. For a fleeting moment, she worried that people would think that she meant Mr. Evander Darrow, but with all the dancing she was doing with Alfred there was no way.

Zelda hated being the center of attention, at parties; especially Ministry parties that she really just attended for Ross. Her sea-green dress was very debutante, her hair was done up - she looked like a real girl, the sort who would actually court someone. Normally she would have hated, but it was really what they needed tonight - so that they could make it through this party and be courting and be fine.

Alfred seemed nervous.

Zelda was nervous, but she was trying to seem fine - because one of them needed to be confident, and because she was worried that if she seemed nervous Alfred was going to try to back out.

"I'm not sure yet," Zelda said, keeping her tone deliberately even, because she wasn't. But she didn't think so. Because none of her siblings had shown up yet.

---

  

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AMAZING set by MJ

Her neutral tone wasn't doing much to particularly reassure him, but he tried to take a minute to force himself to appreciate the moment. Zelda looked beautiful, in her green dress and with her hair done up like that, and of course he always enjoyed her company. If he could manage to stop fretting about the inevitable conversation with one of her siblings, this had the makings of a lovely evening. Getting to dance with her and spend time with her and talk to her at social functions was the whole point, and he ought to savor the moment while it lasted. He couldn't keep his mind on the positives for long, though, before drifting back to worry.

"At least I haven't seen your brother Ari yet," he remarked quietly, forgetting that he had never told Zelda about the time Ari Fisk had accosted him in a supply closet at the hospital, and that without this context his statement likely didn't make much sense. Aside from opening the door, it wasn't as though Ari had played any particularly strong role in the disastrous courtship attempt last year, which had been Alfred's only interaction with most of the rest of her family. "D'you know if he's coming?" Alfred asked, hoping he wasn't. He knew all of the Fisks would likely have been invited, as close relations of the Minister, but since Ari had no connection to the Ministry or to Hawaii that Alfred knew of, he could at least hope.

  

---

MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER

Having been at the party since the very first guests arrived Konstantin had been rather more occupied with making sure that everything was going as smoothly as could be expected for Ross' sake. It wasn't his job per say - Mr Crouch was more than capable of taking care of the formal part of the the evening - but he had tried to be as jovial as possible, shared drinking with dignitaries, Quidditch players and a rather lovely spouse of one of the first group that he had quickly palmed off onto his sister with an encouraging smile.

It had been going so well. His spirits had been high as he agreed to a dance, rather earlier in proceedings that he would have liked but much earlier than he normally did, and though the young lady had not been Amelia Evans - and therefore not worth too much attention - but she had been very keen to ask him about the rumours swirling around the ballroom. His spirits immediately plummeted.

Rapidly beginning to panic Konstantin spotted them and began to stalk towards his younger sister. Along the way he managed to smile at a few guests but they were all false and increasingly twitchy.

"He'll be here shortly." He answered the man coldly, turning to Zelda. "Please tell me this isn't what it seems?"

---

The following 3 users Like Konstantin Fisk's post:3 users Like Konstantin Fisk's post
   Amelia Evans, Cassius Lestrange, J. Alfred Darrow

Ari was going to be dreadfully unhappy with her, and Zelda glanced around, trying to catch sight of him - she nearly missed him, but caught sight of him with Dionisia and started. Ari didn't look happy; or, he looked neutral, and Zelda was just ready for him to come over to yell at her publicly. She was so briefly caught up in finding Ari that she missed Kons' approach, and started visibly at the sound of his voice.

Konstantin's disappointment was not something she courted with frequency, but it could be worse; he was not, after all, her father. Zelda's eyebrows shot up in surprise, but she schooled her expression into cheerful neutrality; after all, this had been part of the point, hadn't it? They were banking on the inability of her family to pitch a fit in public, so she had to stay right here, plant herself like a tree.

But she had not decided what she would say, in the moment.

Zelda touched a hand to Kons' elbow, as if she could sooth him. "I don't know what you're talking about," Zelda said. Please - it was Kons, she could talk Kons down if she tried hard, he was always careful and measured and steady.

(Merlin help her if Ros made her way over!)

---

  

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AMAZING set by MJ

If this gentleman had passed by on the street Alfred might not have recognized him as one of Zelda's many siblings, but the determination with which he was making his way towards them was a dead giveaway. He had been so busy prior to this evening, and so far during the event, worrying about Ari, and Zelda's father, and the bloody Minister and his wife that it had hardly even occurred to him to worry about this Fisk, but he was plenty worried now. For one thing, he wasn't even entirely confident that he knew the first name of this Mr. Fisk, which didn't bode well for his ability to get through a conversation with him without making a fool of himself.

(He did listen when Zelda talked about her family, and paid attention, but she had an awful lot of siblings and he could not be expected to remember all of them and their names when he had had such little face-to-face interaction with them. It didn't help, either, that none of them had easy, English names like John)

Alfred didn't like, either, the way that he said he'll be here shortly; it made it sound as though there had been a prior arrangement to this effect. They couldn't possibly have known anything like this was set to happen, since he knew both he and Zelda had kept it a carefully guarded secret. He had a dramatic and unwelcome vision of all of the Fisk brothers conferencing in the cloak room moments earlier and discussing the most subtle way to lure him outside and murder him in the alley. He gave a nervous glance to either side to ensure they weren't creeping up to ambush him already, but of course they weren't, because that was ridiculous. Wasn't it?

Zelda was going to know how to handle this, he told himself. It was her family, and her plan — and his attempt to try and smooth things over and act honorable and do the right thing was what had resulted in the disastrous Passover last year. He had to trust that Zelda could get through this, and that she'd be able to drag him through with her and they'd both come out the other end of it. He briefly and gently put a hand on her elbow, as a gesture of encouragement — and, without conscious thought, placed himself slightly behind her so that she was shielding him somewhat from her older brother.

The following 1 user Likes J. Alfred Darrow's post:1 user Likes J. Alfred Darrow's post
   Elias Grimstone

---

MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER

Oh she was clever, he would give her that much. In the middle of the ballroom he could not unleash the torrent of questions that had sprung into his mind, nor could he drag her away without creating a scene. He doubted Ross would chastise him for the display but the rest of society, all of whom were packed into this room, would have long memories.

He had a shrewd idea that what he was looking at was precisely what he thought it was. Darrow remained obstinately silent. He recalled the man’s name from a vaguely recalled mention in the Prophet and immediately placed him as being somebody disappointing to do with the Darrow he knew at the Ministry. For the love of God why couldn’t it have been that Darrow?!

“You know exactly what I’m talking about Zelda,” he replied rapidly, eyes shifting around the room to ensure they were not being overheard. Even with his voice as low as possible he couldn’t shake the feeling that they were being observed and commented upon. “Do you take me for a fool?” He asked sharply, resting his gaze on the man hovering behind his little sister like an abject coward and glowering.

---

  

This was not the worst thing in the world. In the past decade alone, after all, countless disasters at the Minsitry of Magic offices, various weather tragedies, plague, fire, and more had ravished Roslyn's carefully cultivated life, all of which were far more tragic than the notion of Zelda shackling herself to John Darrow, an adventurer with little, if anything, to recommend him. Still, she was hardly pleased by this particular turn.

Duty kept her near her husband's side for much of the early portion of the evening, but as she spotted her brother approach the—Merlin help her—couple, Ros politely made her excuses to the ladies with whom she was talking and made her way to join them.

"Perhaps a more quiet arena would be suitable if we're to have a family chat," she suggested with forced lightness, a hand on Konstantin's elbow as she appeared at his side.

The following 1 user Likes Roslyn Ross's post:1 user Likes Roslyn Ross's post
   J. Alfred Darrow

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— #PrettiesByMJ —

Oh, she was for sure going to be murdered. Never mind making it out of the evening with an apparently-weird courtship; she was not going to make it off the dance floor alive. Her heart rabbited in her chest. It was not really the glower that got her, but the addition of Ros, who was very smart and sometimes vicious. Ros, who hated attention, and whose husband's party Zelda was currently causing a miniature scene at. Ros, who was in many ways Brannon's perfect daughter - successfully married, successfully in society, and as far as Zelda knew had never even considered eloping.

Zelda had considered many outcomes for the evening - many combinations of siblings - but had not considered Kons and Ros at the same time. Frankly, she was not sure how to handle this. And while her heart was still beating rapidfire, she said with all the bravado she did not feel: "I'd really rather not."

As long as they remained in public she could not be yelled at; or so the logic went.

---

The following 1 user Likes Zelda Darrow's post:1 user Likes Zelda Darrow's post
   Roslyn Ross

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AMAZING set by MJ

Alfred wasn't entirely sure that this was the right course of action, but he was trying to trust Zelda. She knew best how to handle her family and see the two of them through this without burning any bridges, or so the theory went. Konstantin's reaction did not engender much confidence in Alfred that they were even going to make it through this conversation without doing some sort of irreparable damage, however, much less the evening. The addition of the Minister's wife to their little group was an even worse omen. He didn't have much time to fret over her arrival, however, as the very first thing she said was immeasurably worse: taking the conversation somewhere more quiet. Quiet, of course, meant only one thing; she wanted to move somewhere private enough that they could let him know what they really thought of his repeated attempts to court their sister.

Of course there was nothing in the world he wanted less, but it might not even have occurred to him that he could have refused — not until Zelda pointedly did so first. This surprised him; although Mrs. Ross' statement had been phrased like a suggestion, he hadn't gotten the impression that it was one. She had authority to command them, too, in several capacities; she was Zelda's older sister, and she was not only the hostess of this particular party (whether in fact or only in formality, it mattered little) but the Minister's wife, which gave her (Alfred thought) the power to do more or less as she pleased when it came to social affairs. But if Zelda didn't want to go and was willing to say as much, of course Alfred was going to side with her — even if in doing so he might permanently sink any hope of being on good footing with any of Zelda's siblings ever again.

You offered to elope with her, he reminded himself. No matter how tonight went, it could not possibly do any more damage to his potential relationship with the larger Fisk family than that.

"We were planning to join the next dance," Alfred said, in an attempt to give them an early out to this conversation. "So perhaps we can postpone the... chat until later tonight."

He had no real hope of avoiding them indefinitely, but perhaps if they could break up the conversation into small enough pieces it could be a bit more manageable. Maybe they'd even burn through some of their anger before they had a chance to air it — but that was probably hoping too much.

  

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MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER

"I do not think that wise at this juncture, Mr. Darrow," came Roslyn's calm reply, a smile not reaching her eyes. Zelda was a stubborn creature who could dig her heels in if pressed, but this man was one Ros was confident she could intimidate into doing as she wished. It was not particularly sporting, she knew, to focus on the weaker target, but this was not a situation where they had the luxury of dithering about.

The following 2 users Like Roslyn Ross's post:2 users Like Roslyn Ross's post
   Elladora Black, Ophelia Devine

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— #PrettiesByMJ —

Had any of his other siblings behaved with such calm surety Konstantin would have guessed immediately, and in some cases correctly, that this was not the first time Zelda's relationship with Darrow had come to the family's attention. But one glance at Roslyn told him this was news to her too: his most sensible sister was ever composed because that was simply her nature, and he took her silent advice to move somewhere more private.

Perhaps if Zelda had been more inclined to take Roslyn's advice over the years they would not be in this predicament now! Not everyone could marry the Minister of Magic but surely even Zelda could do better than this? Briefly he thought of Amelia and a stab of fear shot through him at the thought of his family thinking the same of her, but his dismissed the notion quickly: the circumstances were entirely different.

"People are beginning to look Zelda, come and sit down," he said in a low tone, keeping his expression pleasantly neutral.

---

  

"I'm not leaving this room," Zelda said brightly, as if Ros and Konstantin were saying something hilarious. With Ros' expression like that, she was even less inclined to leave the party. Besides - she was not sure their 'news' had reached enough people yet. If her siblings managed to stop her now, this wouldn't be worth anything - and her father was definitely not going to take it well regardless, so she would like to make her point.

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   Ophelia Devine

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AMAZING set by MJ

It was all Ros could do to keep an air of calm. She should have known Zelda would be obstinate—she adored her sister, but by even arriving here with Mr. Darrow, the younger witch had knowingly, willingly veered off course.

"Mr. Darrow, please," she turned her attentions to the wizard, gesturing vaguely towards the door. There was nothing to be gained in arguing with Zelda, but perhaps her chosen beau would demonstrate a hitherto undiscovered degree of sense.

  

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— #PrettiesByMJ —

Mr. Darrow please what? Alfred thought a little desperately as the Minister's wife singled him out. He had less than zero desire to talk with her at the moment, particularly if it involved, as she seemed to be indicating, stepping outside of the dance area and away from the safety of a crowd. He hadn't been expecting this — they were supposed to want to talk to Zelda, not him. Actually, they were supposed to not be staying this long to interrupt at all. This entire plan depended on the Fisks not wanting to make a scene. This may not have crossed into scene territory quite yet, but Konstantin was right — people were starting to look. At a glance, someone might assume this was a pleasant chat between Zelda and her siblings, but none of them were quite so good at disguising their true feelings to keep that charade intact under closer examination.

What to do now? If he agreed to follow Mrs. Ross outside, it would be a concession of defeat, wouldn't it? The rest of Zelda's siblings would be able to start damage control and erase the idea of a courtship from the eye of society entirely. All their efforts so far, and all of the anxiety tying his stomach in knots, would be for naught. But staying here like this was unsustainable; if neither of her siblings backed down, eventually people observing would realize this conversation wasn't as pleasant and superficial as ballroom chats usually were. From there it would be only a minor logical leap to assume Zelda's family disapproved. And if it was already well-known that they disapproved, there would be no reason to try and preserve appearances by allowing it to continue — so, again, all for nothing.

He hesitated, clearly uncertain. This conversation needed to end, but it needed to end on their terms. Nothing he could say was going to persuade them to leave the two of them alone, and Zelda had already declared that she wasn't going to quietly follow her sister out of the party. Roslyn was trying to divide and conquer the couple, Alfred thought, and unless he could think of something fast, she was likely to succeed. What could he do that would prevent the Fisks from undoing their carefully crafted narrative the moment he was out of sight?

Something to strengthen the narrative, he supposed. His stomach dropped, but there was no putting off his response any longer. "I'll be back before the waltz," Alfred told Zelda, hoping it was a promise he'd be able to keep. Assuming none of her brothers attempted to murder him in the hall outside after this.

He hoped Zelda would understand, too, because this wasn't anything they'd talked about beforehand and she might very well try to slap him if he caught her too much by surprise. He reached down to take her hand and squeezed it, then, after another very brief pause, leaned in to kiss her cheek.

There. He'd kissed her in the middle of the dance floor, where everyone could see. Let the Fisks try and talk their way back from that.

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   Zelda Darrow

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MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER

Were it not for Ros’ presence Konstantin was not entirely sure he would have been able to resist striking the man. To take such liberties in public without the slightest hint of decorum was abominable behaviour and he resented that his inaction might imply, even slightly, that he was in any way accepting of this travesty.

Fortunately the man was soon gone and he turned his gaze towards his sisters.

“Zelda, please go with Roslyn to sit down. We can talk about it later,” he added, with as much calm as he could muster.

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   J. Alfred Darrow