November 13th, 1891 - The Florist Potts
@"Dahlia Potts" Calla Potts Jack Dorset

Daff had finally managed to settle into working in her office again. She'd rearranged, redecorated a little bit and it felt a little more like hers with some fewer memories burned into her brain. It was lighter, brighter and she'd even gotten Zinnia to paint a little mural on the wall next to the window. If she was going to spend a lot of time up here, she may as well be comfortable in her own space. Everybody in her family seemed quite content to start handing the reins over to her in regards to the business, and frankly, though she hadn't ever really envisioned being the sister to take over, it was a good move for her. Having such a heavy hand in the shop occupied her  mind and her hands, it kept her busy and frankly it exhausted her enough to at least start getting a few quality hours of sleep each night. All in all, things were looking up and thank Merlin for that. Daff desperately  needed a change in life and perhaps this was what she was meant to be doing anyway. She still worked downstairs, took orders and made arrangements, but she was also responsible for the ordering and the bookkeeping, making sure patrons paid on time and followed up on the bills. It wasn't nearly as tedious as she would have thought, plus she was a natural with people, so it was working out.

Currently she was hunched over her desk working on the sketches for the Gallery opening in a week's time, trying to finalize her designs for the arrangements that Miss Crawley had envisioned. It was going to be positively regal and Daff had seen to everything personally. The opening of the Gallery was obviously a large event and though Daffy wasn't really sure they had every done anything much aside from weddings this big in the past, this would be a huge leap in their visibility. It would help put the shop a little more solidly on the map. A boost in business was never a bad thing and she was sure she could handle it, even if they might have to hire some help. Some fresh blood that wasn't family would bring new perspective and create a collective of different styles and personalities; she could easily envision it all.

Dahlia was manning the desk below and Daffy was pretty sure Thistle as in her basement workshop. If she wasn't mistaken today was also a Hogsmeade visit day for the school which meant hopefully Calla would be able to stop by. Daffy seemed to forget just how long it was in between each visit and just how odd it was for Calla to be away. Perhaps she had simply gotten used to having her youngest sister around all summer. Then again that was probably because Daff spent so much time at the shop these days. Still, it would be nice to see Calla.

Putting the finishing touches on the centerpiece of the whole upcoming event when she felt the first rumble. The vase with a single red carnation on her desk went crashing to the floor, followed by a thundering boom and more shattering glass below her. Daff stood immediately, but the floor gave out below her desk and she went crashing among the splintered wood along with her desk to through the floor and down to the shop front below.

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Also open to 1-2 others who might be nearby, but we're hoping for this to move quickly!

  

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Sometimes, she used Hogsmeade weekends to hand out with her friends, but most of the time she found herself drifting to the shop to see her parents and sisters. There was no guarantee that everyone would be there. Ama and Senna were likely at their own homes, and her father rarely worked in the shop. Even amongst the younger four of her sisters, there was no assurance they would all be there. She rarely wrote home to say when Hogsmeade days were - though all of her family having also attended Hogwarts, they could easily guess if they thought about it - or which of them she would be coming home on. But part of her, for this week, really wished they'd all be here. Yesterday was her birthday after all.

This Saturday she'd slipped in with little fanfare beyond gripping Dahlia in a tight hug once she spotted the other girl at the counter, before putting herself to work. She'd collected the watering can they put beside the counter with the intent of perking up the lilies by the entrance when she spotted Dahlia. Calla thought if she had to pick, that she missed Dahlia the most. Not so much because the two were the closest. She didn't like playing favorites with her sisters, she went to all of them for different things. But Dahlia had always been the most consistent presence. Before this year, the two girls had only not been in the same place for three years of Calla's life. That was the most she could say for any of her sisters. Anyone else who was here she'd see throughout the day as well as paying a visit back home before the day was out.

It was when she was watering the lilies that she felt the hot sting of glass across her skin. She didn't have but a second to ponder why before she was thrown back into a display, the wooden stand crunching and warping under her with the impact. Calla sat, stunned for a moment, blinking slowly. Whatever happened hadn't been enough to cause her to lose consciousness but the pain she was experiencing was enough that she didn't really want to test her luck by trying to get up.

"Dahlia?" Calla croaked, before panicking. She knew she had spoken. It had hurt far too much her to have done nothing, but all she heard was a metallic ringing.

  

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look at the pretties mj made me!!!

It was a typical Saturday afternoon. Which meant that in typical fashion Dahlia was daydreaming. In her dreams she was at home waiting for gentleman callers or trying on gowns for a social event that night. Instead she was reading a book at the front desk of the shop, wondering if Calla would come to visit this afternoon. She had baked a special cake back home for her decorated in buttercream calla lilies and was eager for her to see it. After all it wasn't every day one's sister turned sixteen.

The only distract Dahlia from her daydreams and her book was, surprisingly, not a customer, but instead her sister. She had hugged Calla tight when she had come into the store and wished her a happy birthday before Calla settled into the routine of the shop as it had been every summer. As much as Dahlia wished that the routine would end and she could be married and running a home of her own instead, she loved moments like this with her sisters and the routine of the store a familiar melody.

And then the normalcy disappeared.

There was a roar and all Dahlia could see was flames. Around her she heard crashing and breaking but her mind didn't take it in. Instead she threw herself to the side and collided with the wall, the force of whatever it was blasting her to the side. A scream escaped Dahlia's lips, lost in the noises around them, as her eyes squeezed shut and her body impacted with hard hot wood.

Everything seemed surreal around her, like a dream - no a nightmare. There was the croak of her name being called. Dahlia's eyes fluttered open to find a wall of wood. Her eyes couldn't focus on the debris that she would eventually realize was the celiling blocking her from the rest of the store. Smoke stung her eyes and her nose and the air felt sufficatingly hot - worse than the green house in the summer. "Calla?! Daffy!?" She tried to claw her way out the small space but there seemed to be no exit.

  

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Pretties by Bee <3

Jack was delighted to discover that Hogsmeade weekends were just as fun as a constable as they had been as a student.  Of course he wasn’t among those running around, buying candy, and rejoicing at being away from the careful eyes of teachers anymore but the atmosphere was still there. 

"Mind the carriages!" he called out, lightheartedly, as a group of young boys darted across the road.  Obviously he didn’t want any of them to get hit but Jack was kind of glad they weren't running about like that in the walk ways.  Inevitably some stuffy old person would get their feathers ruffled and Jack would have to step in ruin the revelry.

He felt the vibrations in the ground before his ears registered the rumbling coming from just up the road.  He'd looked down curiously at his feet, as if that would hold then answer, when roar of a larger explosion came next.  His head snapped up just intime to see a man with his wand pointed at the Pott's shop, store front already destroyed, before he was enveloped in a cloud of dust as upper floor came crashing down.

Without conscious thought, he'd grabbed his wand and shot off an instinctive spell at the man, the cloud completely obscuring his target.  A quick dash brought him to the pile of rubble that was what was left of the florist shop as the autumn breeze made quick work of clearing the air.  He could just barely make out the outline of a man turning on his heel to disapparate as the cacophony of the collapsing building calmed into occasional beats of settling bricks. 

He felt pulled in two separate directions, glued where he stood as he looked between where the assailant had last been seen and the shop.  And then he heard it.  Soft and muffled voices coming from within the wreckage.  He finally realized with a lurch that he knew this shop… pretty well in fact. 

"Stay back!" he shouted to the crowd that had begun to gather, no doubt drawn by the explosion as much as he had.  He fired off the distress signal that would summon back up - though in the heat of things, who knew which - had he called in the local constabulary or the full might of the auror office?  He didn’t care as he stumbled over the edges of the debris that had been pushed into the road, trying to get close enough to hear the voices again.

"Miss Potts?"  he called, straining to hear any sign of life.  Who knew which of the Potts girls were in there but no doubt there was at least one. 

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Fortunately the desk went one way and Daffy went another, otherwise she would have been pinned beneath it somehow as the floor gave way. That wasn't to say that she was unharmed in the fall. Wood splintered all around her and she hit the floor below with a jarring crash, something in her shoulder popping sickeningly as the breath was knocked clear from her lungs. She saw stars and her vision swam, panic rising as she felt the same as when her sight had vanished.

Dazed and confused as to what could have possibly happened, Daff tried to sit up, but found she completely lacked the capacity. Her left arm hung loosely and uncomfortably at her side and her head was pounding. She could feel blood trickling down her face in more than one spot and she was sure her lip was split. Her whole body felt jarred and out of sorts, but she thought her legs were alright.

It was of course the panicked voices of her sisters that finally gave her the strength to push from the ground. "Dahlia? Where's Calla?" Thistle was down in the basement, but the inside door to it was no longer visible among the rubble. Dizzy with disorientation, Daff tried to swivel around to locate her sisters, but the motions set fire to both her head and her shoulder and she had to stop as soon as she started.

Another welcome voice wafted through the cloud of dust hanging through the air. "Jack!" Daffy called in anguished relief. "Find Calla!"

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Slowly the ringing subsided enough that she could hear the voices around her. She placed them one by one, tuning out the ones she didn't know in a desperate search for those she did. Eventually, she let herself sag back into the display shelf she'd fallen into. She'd heard both Dahlia and Daffy's voices. They were, if not okay, alive and that was all that mattered. If she was still on the front then the basement was likely fine meaning that Thistle was fine. As far as she knew everyone else had been out. That was all she cared about. That confirmed, the fifth year gave herself a moment to evaluate what exactly hurt. Her face and arms stung from the glass shards (those would be a nightmare to get out if any had stuck) and her back would ache from the impact but the worst was the familiar pain in her leg that reminded her too much of the time she'd broken her arm in a quidditch practice with a buldger. She didn't need a healer to tell her it was likely broken and she'd be facing at least a dose of disgusting skele-gro later.

She tuned back into her older sister's panicked voice and she struggled to push herself into more of an upright position, knocking the fallen flowers and containers that had fallen onto her onto the floor. The motion caused pain to shoot through her body but she ignored it, frowning. "Over here, Daffy!" Calla wasn't sure at the moment who Jack was but the last thing she wanted was Daffy worried. "I'm okay." Though the groan to follow likely wasn't the most convincing. But at least Daffy would know she was awake and okay.

That was was the realization of what had just happened hit her. There'd been some kind of explosion, she thought. Her first thought was that something had happened in Ollivander's again like had happened back in January. But this time it had come from the front of the shop, not the back or the side. "What happened?"

  

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look at the pretties mj made me!!!

The work that had kept him at work late the night before had finally been thinning enough that Faustus had time to make a trip for a meeting in Hogsmeade over his lunch break. With the apparition points the Ministry had set up, he found himself in the village in minutes, pulling his cloak over his shoulders as he made his way through the crowd to meet a contact about a prospective case. It had only been a few minutes into the meeting when the entire building rumbled and the sound of an explosion crackled through the air.

Immediately Faustus moved to the window, his wand already out and pointed at the pane to swing it open. The streets below were chaos - people screamed, running away from what looked like the florist shop which looked completely demolished. Eyes searching the crowd, Faustus tracked what appeared to be a brunette head darting towards the scene and scrambling immediately over the rubble.

So help him, if this was another citizen attempting to help and endangering themselves...with a sharp turn on the spot, Faustus apparated down to the streets, having no time to do the customary procedure and see himself out the door. As soon as he felt his feet hit the ground, he was walking towards the destruction of the shop, surveying the damage. The brunette had vanished into the dust of the shop which was still shifting from the reverberations of the explosion. With a wave of his wand, Faustus conjured a barrier between the shop and the crowd, raising his free hand and pressing his fingers forward to coax the barrier back even further. Then, raising his wand to his throat said, "Please stay back for the your safety and the safety of others."

There was hardly any time to see if they heeded his command. Whirling back into the shop, Faustus could hear the distinct voices of people shouting desperately inside for help. With a sharp pain, he realized they were young voices too, and he steeled himself to prepare for the worst. Another wave of his wand saw some of the debris whirl skywards to make it easier to see, but he would still have some difficulty seeing. Stepping into the rubble, Faustus steadied himself. The shop had been blown to pieces - flower petals fluttered lifelessly to the ground, their colors completely obscured by a thick layer of dust.

Voices were still shouting back and forth, desperately attempting to see if each other was alright. Faustus looked around for the brunette he'd seen daring in here while attempting to triangulate the closest of the voices. A voice further away from him called, and he paused, waiting to hear the response. Yes! It had been closer to him this time, and Faustus quickly made his way over to where he saw a figure lying in the rubble on the ground. Mercifully, it appeared she was conscious, but there was no telling what damage the shop would have done in attempts to crush her underneath.

There was little time for pleasantries or introductions - thankfully he was wearing his Ministry badge which should help with explanations that he was here to help. She was conscious and speaking, which was what mattered. "How many others are there?" He asked quickly but gently as he knelt down to further assess any injuries.

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Left it fairly open as to who he's next to, so whoever posts next, I suppose? xD

  

"Daffy?" There was an edge of hysteria and relief in Dahlia's voice at the sound of her older sister. "At the front-" She answered in a raised voice that cut off to cough at the lingering smoke trapped with her behind the counter. She could just make out Calla's voice and relief poured through her.

"Where's-" Another cough broke Dahlia's raised voice, "Thistle?" She didn't even know if anyone could hear her. She pushed against wood slightly, sore and aching, her lungs heavy with the lingering smoke. A moment later a man was peering at her through the rubble.

She was sure she looked a mess, she had to, thank Merlin she had had no plans to attend to this evening. But none of this matter. Her sisters were what mattered. "Three." Had it been normal circumstances she might have blushed at the croak that escaped her lips. "Thistle was in the basement," She paused to cough, the smoke seemed to be getting thicker, "Daffy upstairs, Calla by the front."

The following 1 user Likes Dahlia Honeyduke's post:1 user Likes Dahlia Honeyduke's post
   Jack Dorset

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Pretties by Bee <3

Jack coughed as he surged forward into the smoke.  He had no idea what he planned to do but he knew it needed to be fast.  Daffy! her voice was clearly distressed but she was alive.  Alive and well enough to speak clearly.  He stood frozen, momentarily overwhelmed as more and more Potts voices sounded off within the wreckage.  He heard a voice of authority behind him on the street and looked over his shoulder in time to see a man clearing away some of the rubble.  Following his lead Jack sprang back into action, carefully shifting rubble out toward the street, reinforcing what walls and support beams were still standing as he went. 

He was soon working side by side with his back-up, the man making quick work of the rescue mission with level of competence that Jack could only hope to emulate one day.  With quick directions from Dahlia Jack was able to narrow his focus to the front of the shop and locate the youngest Potts sister.  She was crumpled pitifully against what was once a wooden display, but clearly awake and alert.  He crouched in close to look her over as best he could, having nothing more than basic first aid training.  "You ok?" he asked carefully, hardly waiting for a response before he was calling back out Daffy.

"We have them - Dahlia and Calla!  Where are you?" 

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That she was immediately able to answer without much trouble was an extremely good sign, and Faustus nodded, tapping the rocks around her with his wand. They floated upwards and out of the way before dropping onto the ground next do them as he listened to where the last known locations of the other girls were. That she told him their names would help tremendously. As he worked to get the debris off of the young woman, Faustus caught movement out of the corner of his eye and he looked up to finally see the brunette that had - foolishly - darted inside. He would have words with him later, but it was not the time or place to admonish. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he did think the young man looked familiar, though there was hardly time to dwell on where he'd seen his picture before.

"Alright," Faustus nodded. At the mention of someone having been upstairs, the Auror drew his gaze upwards. There was no 'upstairs' anymore. It was hard to see through the thick dust, but the lighter debris of the shop was most certainly being drawn skywards in a draft. That meant, he thought with a dreaded swooping in his stomach, that the one who had been on the second floor - Daffy, she'd been called - was likely beneath the rubble and had suffered a pretty serious fall. The other one who had been in the basement...

They had to move quickly.

Ultimately it was lucky that he had looked above them. His gaze darted towards the walls. Whether it was the noise that had drawn his attention first or the movement, he did not know. But the wall seemed to crumble like liquid. A quick shield charm cast from his wand protected them from any sort of further injury, but it only caused Faustus to hasten his movements.

Another shout from the front had Faustus looking towards it as he saw the young man crouched by a forlorn figure. He prayed to Merlin she was alright. "Get her out of the building!" Faustus barked to him, only raising his voice to be heard over the shifting debris. He turned his attention back to the young woman. "Let's do the same for you, miss." He said to her, his voice softer this time, moving to put on arm at her back and the other under her legs. Once the two girls were out, they would go back for the other two.

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Much to Daffy's immense relief, both Calla and Dahlia seemed at least alert and able to answer. She settled herself back down against the floor, trying to peer up through the debris that nearly covered her completely. It seemed like everything from above had caved in and though the shop itself was not very large, there was enough room for quite the mess.

An unfamiliar voice of authority caught her attention and between whoever that was, and Jack, Daffy had to trust that they would get the girls out of the shop. Thistle was probably fine down there in the basement, though it was hard to tell if the blast had an impact down there. Though the door to the basement from the shop was shattered and its location impossible to find at the moment, there was another exit that led the alley adjacent, near the back of the greenhouse that her sister could use to get out.

Daffy could feel her vision swimming again, unconsciousness threatening to overtake her, which made focusing on Jack's voice much harder than she would have liked. He asked a question and she had no good answer. "Underneath everything, I'm pinned I think." She croaked into the dust, the effort from raising her voice making her even more lightheaded. "Jack?" She added weakly, panicked, head lolling to the side as she heard everything go fuzzy and fall dark.

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She can fade in and out as we need, I just like to induce panic lol.

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   Faustus Prewett

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As the so-called Jack came into her view, she was able - with the addition of a face to tie to the name - to place Jack as the boy from school that she sometimes saw trailing behind Daffy who reminded her a bit of a puppy. Why was he here? As he started to see if she was okay, she offered something between a smile and a grimace. She was... as long as no one expected her to walk. Without having to support her weight, the pain in her leg was heavily present, but constant and with the excitement, she could ignore it. If he made her stand up - especially on her own - Calla knew the pain would only increase. "I'm o-" she started to repeat, cutting off when she realized that he seemed to hardly be paying her any mind now that he'd done as Daffodil had commanded. With a slight chuckle - and instant regret as she found laughing hurt - she found herself realizing he did act like a puppy.

But her attention was promptly ripped away by the sound of her sister's voice. Just because she didn't see Daffy didn't mean she couldn't tell something was wrong. Daffy's voice had gone off, her volume less and tone shifting. "Daffy?!" Calla leaned forwards, brushing off Jack's assistance. "Daffodil!" Her own voice had taken on the panicked intonation of earlier and she reached out to try and push the constable away from herself. The brunette's eyes turned hard as she glared at Jack. "I don't care what Daffy or that man said," the Hufflepuff voiced, "I am not moving until you make sure my sister is okay. I will fight every inch if you try. Get her out, I'll face her anger later."

  

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look at the pretties mj made me!!!

It felt like everything was happening all at once and in slow motion at the same time.  If Calla responded to him, he didn’t hear her.  Between the rumble of walls continuing to fall around them, the man shouting, and the knowledge that Daffy was somewhere pinned under the rubble he had no more room in his brain for anything else.

The command to get Calla out reverberated in his head like a gong when the weak cry of his name rose from the wreckage.  His eyes snapped to the older man, filled with conflict and a flash of panic, as if hoping the directive would change.  He stood there, rooted to the spot as the youngest Potts sister try to push him away demanding that he leave her to go for her sister.  Her protests struck him deeply - they mirrored his own instinct to ignore logic and go right for Daffy but the man's order had come with authority and deep down Jack knew that it was the right thing to do. Suddenly he was moving again.

"Just hold on!" He called back in the direction where Daffy's fading voice had come from, his voice only hinting at the frustration of having to leave her there.  "My apologies Miss - " he said, turning back to Calla to draw one of her arms it over his shoulders. " - but I've got to get you out" Aided by a simple levitation charm, he lifted her into his arms and began to carefully pick his way back out to the street, braced for her to fight him the whole way. 

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There was a crumbling sound around them and without realizing it Dahlia flinched, almost cowering away from the man and the rubble, back toward the wall where she had been thrown. But before she could move the man threw up a shield charm and the rubble of the collapsing wall danced around them harmlessly. Dahlia's eyes widened slightly, had he not been there she would have been buried even further again.

There was another male voice then, shouting that Calla was okay, Dahlia's worry lessened, but there was still Daffy and Thistle. The man in front of her shouted to get Calla out of the store, it comforted Dahlia. His confidence his ability to get them through this situation. That tone, his actions, they all made her trust him despite the fact that she didn't know him. His tone was gentle as he turned back to her, his eyes kind and worried. She gave a small nod, another smoke wracked cough tugging at her lungs.

Later she would like to have said she had the forethought to grab her wand from the desk, but she didn't, she forgot it entirely as the man lifted her into his arms, held her close to his chest and rescued her from the wreck. More coughs tore through her from the smoke as she buried her face in the crook of her arm, she hear voices around her, the voices of her sisters and the men, but she could make out none of them. When he finally got her out of the building the fresh air flooded her lungs. She looked anxiously around for her sisters, but there was no sign and she hadn't heard Thistle's voice yet.

A crowd had gathered, but worry pulled her gaze to the building where her sisters remained and nothing else was clear in her vision. "Please," She croaked as the man set her on her feet, "Please get them out." There was desperation in her voice, a fear that she'd never see them again.

  

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Pretties by Bee <3

Lifting her out of the wreckage was the easier part. With his hands now metaphorically tied, he walked as quickly as he could outside, occasionally glancing above them to make sure there would be no more surprises from above. Once they emerged from the wreckage, Faustus could make out that his charm had held the crowd at bay. While he could feel Miss Potts twisting in his arms looking for her sisters, his eyes were on the
crowd, looking for what had drawn his attention. Their timing seemed impeccable; a faint popping noise told him reinforcements had arrived. The medi-witches and wizards were here, making their way around the barrier Faustus had drawn. He set Miss Potts down, seeing if she was going to be steady on her feet as a healer approached approached them, seeing Miss Potts in his arms. The healer immediately conjured a hovering stretcher so he could help her onto it. Out of the corner of his eye, Faustus could see another healer doing the same for the young man and what looked like the youngest Potts sister. That made two of them with two left.

The hoarse voice of Miss Potts reached him, and Faustus looked down at her, his jaw tightening as a vice gripped at his stomach. There could be no guarantees. There was no telling what sight would meet them in the wreckage, and he couldn't give her false hope. But he did his best to conjure a smile. "Stay here." The command was gentle, but firm, and he glanced briefly to the medi-wizard who had begun to open his briefcase before re-focusing back on Miss Potts. "Take care of your sister. Make sure she doesn't leave either." It pained him to be unable to reassure her of the results more than she would know.

Faustus turned to the young man, his gaze searching. In the daylight and outside of the chaos indoors, Faustus now realized that the man he'd seen running into the building wore a uniform identifying him as a police constable. His indignation eased a great deal knowing that the constable hadn't been a pedestrian who had gone running straight into danger. It might have been why Faustus thought he'd recognized him for the briefest of moments. He nodded to the boy, his expression grim. "There are apparently two more." He said, hoping the constable might know more than he did at the present. His eyes scanned the crowd behind them again before returning to the constable.

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"No, no, Daffy!" Calla screeched, pushing against the constable with likely a surprising amount of force. She pushed as he lifted her up, pain spiking to overwhelm her as Jack twisted her,  leaving her supporting most of her own weight for a moment, causing her to drop into a dead weight before she felt herself being lifted off the ground. As her vision swarmed back Calla resumed fighting, thrusting her elbows into his chest once she found twisting to kick caused far too much pain.

"Daffy! Answer me, please!" How could he leave her sister there!? Calla was clearly  fine but they didn't know about Daffy. She could be hurt or bleeding or worse and this man who claimed to be her sister's friend was fine justify fine leaving her there. As they got closer the where the door once was and the crowd gathered, the fifth year fell limp, tears finally falling.

"You left her!" she snapped, anger ringing her voice over the pain.

The following 1 user Likes Calla Potts's post:1 user Likes Calla Potts's post
   Jack Dorset

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look at the pretties mj made me!!!