1 April, 1892 — Night — Sanditon Resort

Getting from Muggle London to the Sanditon had proved more difficult than he had anticipated, and consequently by the time he finally managed to appear through the resort's main floo it was already dark. On the upside, this meant he could shed all the superfluous layers of clothing he had donned in an attempt to protect his pale skin from a chance ray of sunlight. On the downside, he now found himself in the unenviable position of trying to break into his own house.

He should have had the presence of mind to floo straight from the house he'd woke up in, or ordered one of the servants in that house to escort him, or even taken the time to scribble out an owl and asked Zelda to come to him; presumably she would have recognized his handwriting well enough, even if there had been someone with his face at home with her that morning. Of course he'd thought of none of those things, being (justifiably) distracted by the fact that he was now a fucking vampire and had no recollection of how any of this had happened. Muggle London had been enough of a hurdle, and then there had been the unexpected encounter with Jo Smith, then navigating the wizarding world in general when he was sporting a set of fangs. Now it was dark, and late enough that Zelda had apparently gone to bed, because when he knocked on the front door of his own house no one came to answer. He tried the handle; it was locked. Was she even at home? He didn't know if there had been someone with his face in the house that morning or not. She might think he had disappeared; she might have gone to stay with family, in that case.

If she'd left, though, anyone she might be staying with would have long since locked their floo. The best bet was still to get inside somehow, and then he could take stock of things and decide where she'd gone and how to reach her — and maybe find his wand, which would make life immensely easier. Alfred didn't think of himself as the kind of person that was too reliant on magic, after his experiences abroad, but he was more dependent on his wand than he'd realized; he'd been missing it sorely since this morning. Just being able to apparate would have been a huge boon (— assuming he could still apparate. Vampires couldn't use magic, and Alfred didn't actually know the extent of the changes that had taken place yet. He'd managed not to rip anyone's throat out, or even been much tempted to, but he wasn't sure that alone was conclusive evidence of his continued humanity).

So here he was, trying to force open the parlor window, while standing in the damp mud of the garden patch in his front yard. He was doing a rather clumsy job of it, but that was fine — he didn't care if he woke anyone inside, because the whole point was to find Zelda. And, like many things he had failed to consider that day, he spared no thought for anyone else who might be alerted to his presence.

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Zelda Darrow (Cassius Lestrange) + Thomas Harvey if you're still here
+ Open to any Sanditon types!

  

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

This was a very weird day, and Zelda had not entirely put her finger on how yet. Alfred wasn't himself, and MA&C was getting weird rumors, and she had heard something about Roslyn through the family grapevine? All of this was to say that weird things were happening, and Zelda hated when she could not figure something out.

She'd intended to stay up and look into things more, but with the growing curve of her belly, she was tired earlier these days. So it was not the sound of someone at the downstairs window that woke Zelda — it was the sound of Yorick barking, more confused than upset, at the something downstairs.

Zelda grabbed her wand from the nightstand, not because she was nervous but because she went everywhere with her wand, and descended the stairs as quickly as she could. Yorick was standing a few feet back from the window, her tail swishing. Zelda shushed her wand walked up to it — maybe she'd left it cracked? — only to see a pale figure right outside.

She pointed her wand at the window, eyebrows raised. (A part of her wished she was not in her nightgown.)

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AMAZING set by MJ

He was having trouble forcing the latch to open; under other circumstances it might have been good news that his house was relatively secure from midnight burglary, but at present it was annoying at best. He was beginning to wonder whether he might have better luck at another window. The kitchen had been draftier lately, so maybe those windows would be more easily forced, though it would be decidedly less of a graceful entrance if he had to climb over the countertop laden in various kitchen wares. Before he moved away from the window, however, he saw Zelda appear in the parlor beyond. In spite of everything he was relieved to see her — that she was still here and not at her family's house, that she hadn't been hurt somehow, et cetera — and without taking the time to think better of it he waved and gestured towards the clasp on the windowsill, silently asking her to open it.

Just after he'd done this it caught up with him that this was a rather ridiculous thing to have done. Zelda was probably not inclined to unlock windows at the request of strange vampires who were caught trying to break in at night. He edged towards the side of the window, a little out of the way in case she decided to fire a spell at him instead and he needed to dodge.

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

This stranger — a very pale stranger, and Zelda thought she knew why — wanted to be let into her home? Zelda frowned, left somewhat at an impasse — she could not hex him without opening her window, and she could not figure out why he wanted in without opening her window. She'd always been a curious, and she held her wand carefully in one hand, still aimed at him, when she opened the window an inch.

Just enough to talk. And enough to fire off a hex, if necessary. "Why?" Zelda asked, eyes narrowed.

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AMAZING set by MJ

Why, indeed? There was no reason she ought to have opened the window even as much as she had, under the circumstances. He didn't have any good explanation to offer, except for the truth, which was going to sound absurd. He'd gone through a whole mess of a day making his way here to tell her, though, so he supposed he'd better just come out with it. These circumstances may even have been marginally more favorable than if he'd broken in and had to go wake her up from their bedroom, actually, much as he wasn't fond of having her wand leveled at him when he was defenseless.

"Alright, so I know you won't believe this. At least not at first," he said, hands raised. "But it's — I'm Alfred. And I have no idea what's going on, but I've been trying to get here to see you all day."

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

Zelda’s forehead crinkled, confusion — this maybe-vampire could not be Alfred. Except that impossible things had happened today, and impossible things happened every day, and so she could not hex him straight-out. But she kept her wand aimed. It was even more likely that he was a stranger, and that he wanted access to her home for — some reason.

”Prove it,” Zelda said.

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AMAZING set by MJ

Alfred had been anticipating something like this, and he'd turned the matter over in his mind as he made his way through London and eventually the Sanditon, but he still hadn't come up with a good route forward. There were plenty of things he could say, of course, but if it were to serve as proof it had to be something that no one else might have already known or picked up by chance, and something that was significant enough that it couldn't have just been guessed. He had the feeling that if he could just touch her, she would know, but it wasn't as though he could ask for that. She still had a wand pointed at him through the crack in the window.

"Yeah, alright," he said, to buy himself time to think. He chewed the edge of his thumb and accidentally drew blood — fucking fangs — and shook his hand out with a mumbled curse. What was he going to say to Zelda? The stories behind his tattoos, maybe — he'd only shared those with her and Jo. The tattoos themselves had been remarked upon in Witch Weekly, though, and he honestly hadn't caught up with whether they'd made their way through the gossip mill since then. That might not be safe enough. Something from the Sycorax expedition, if there was anything he'd told her that hadn't been either printed or alluded to in that terrible memoir? Or...

"Oh, wait, I'm an idiot," he remarked as an idea struck him. It wasn't a matter of telling her anything at all, if he could show her instead. He didn't know if this would actually work or not — he hadn't tried any magic today and things were off — but he thought even if it didn't, she might recognize the gesture. He muttered a chant and lit a small fire in the palm of his hand.

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

Zelda raised her eyebrows. The physical behavior was similar to Alfred’s — the thumb chewing, as well as the spell — but the spell was eerie. It was magic from the tribe, and Zelda knew it — and even if the man in front of her looked like a vampire, he wasn’t, because he’d created that fire in his hand.

She used her free hand to raise the window another inch. ”You know why I’m hesitant,” she said, ”Right?”

Maybe the man beside her this morning hadn’t been Alfred. Maybe this man was Alfred. But she still had to be careful, because she was smart — and because of the little life she was trying to grow.

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AMAZING set by MJ

"Of course I do," he agreed, but he offered her a sheepish smile at the same time, because she'd raised the window another inch. "You're not an idiot."

He remembered after a half-second that smiling might not have been the best idea and stopped, pressing his lips together instead. He put one hand on his opposite elbow, not sure what to do with himself. "I don't know what happened," he continued, after a second. "I just woke up in London like this. And like I said, I've been trying to get here all day, but — ah, people aren't exactly eager to help someone who looks like this, and I haven't got my wand."

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

She wasn't an idiot.

And she wasn't convinced this man was her husband.

She just also wasn't convinced that he wasn't her husband. He had Alfred's mannerisms, Alfred's cadence, Alfred's tribal magic — he just didn't have Alfred's face. And didn't she know that these things were, technically, possible?

"You can come in," Zelda decided, "But I'm reserving the right to hex you."

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AMAZING set by MJ

Alfred started to smile but bit his lip (with his center teeth, not the fangs) to hold it back. This wasn't the right time to be smiling, or to make jokes about how he would expect nothing less regardless of what he looked like. Through their entire relationship, Zelda had never hexed him, but it seemed like the sort of thing she might do with little remorse if he was ever being enough of an ass. She'd tried to stun Jo once. Speaking of which, he should probably tell Zelda that Jo was back in the country and he'd seen her, but this was definitely not the time.

"Can you unlock the front door?" he asked. "Or should I scrabble through the window?"

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

Zelda had half an impulse to make him clamber in through the window — it would certainly be funny — but decided that it was also inappropriate under the circumstances. She couldn't help but smile, though. "You can come in through the front," she said. She pushed the window shut and crossed over to the front door to unlock and open it. Zelda leaned against the open doorframe as she waited for the maybe-stranger-maybe-Alfred to circle around.

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AMAZING set by MJ

Alfred made his way around the corner of the house and towards the front door. As he did, he considered where to go from here. He didn't have Zelda's complete trust yet, but under the circumstances he didn't know how easy it would be to earn it. There were some things that needed to be addressed and couldn't wait until she believed him, he didn't think. Of course one pressing matter was how this had happened, and whether or not it could be reversed. Zelda was particularly well-suited to speculate on such matters, given her career. By the time he'd reached the front door, though, it wasn't the most pressing question on his mind.

"Was... someone here? This morning?" he asked, already tensing in preparation for her answer.

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

Zelda frowned. "I thought you - I thought Alfred was here," she said, "Except — kind of in an odd way. Seemed hungover, maybe?" Her mind was running through the morning, trying to catalogue details — evidence, the way she would if she was working on a case.

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AMAZING set by MJ

Alfred wasn't sure if that was good news or not. If he'd been put in another body, he supposed it was good that his old one still existed somewhere. The idea of a stranger in bed with Zelda that morning while she was entirely unaware that anything was amiss, though, made his skin crawl.

"Did he — do anything?" he asked, at this point so tense that he was having trouble finding the right phrasing. "Are you alright?"

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

If this stranger wasn't Alfred, then he was doing a good job of faking concern about her. She had an impulse to reach out to touch his elbow, but she still wasn't sure, so she folded her arms over her chest instead.

Zelda shook her head. "No," she said, "He didn't do anything. I was at work most of the day, anyways."

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AMAZING set by MJ