Tu ne seras jamais là [Lyra]

[dahlia jade leloup]

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October 13th, 2028

The 96th at the Shard. A magical addition to an already obscenely large and oversized building. Dahlia had never been before, nor to the muggle part, but had somehow scored a date of sorts to the trendy cocktail bar that was only open to wizardkind. There was an open secret that it was relatively accommodating to werewolves, thus the only reason she even entertained the date to begin with. Free drinks at an expensive bar with great views and all she had to do was dress nice and show up? Couldn't have been easier. It wasn't like she had any pressing work to get to either, Gringotts still keeping her benched until all signs of her concussion disappeared. There had been some hope over the summer, but they deemed her still incapacitated to a degree and she could only do research and training. No actual jobs. Killing her sudden free time by spinning through dates courtesy of the Blishwick dating app was all she could do as of late. At least that had some value to it.

She was supposed to meet the guy around 10pm, arriving early enough to get at least one drink in before it started. Finding herself at the entrance, she was let up quickly, momentarily wondering that if there hadn't been a reservation, if she could have flashed her bite scar as a means of identification. She'd have to disrobe quite a bit to show it, but shame wasn't exactly something she felt often.

So up she went to the 96th floor, and a rather impressive bar appeared before her. To say she felt out of place was an understatement, and to shake that feeling she quickly made her way over to the bar and ordered a cocktail. Anything that would get liquor in her body as fast as possible. Checking her phone, there had yet to be a response to her text about arriving. She was already starting to think this whole date was going to be a dud...

Lyra Horváth ● 335 ● song by artist

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[Lyra Horváth]

It was another long evening at 96th at the Shard. Between dueling tourneys she was looking at heading into another long dark holiday season. The offer to pick up work at some in the southern hemisphere was looking more and more appealing. As October rolled on, it only got darker and heavier. It had nearly been a whole year since her mate had left her for someone else. Of course she had kept herself busy here and there, but it still made her question it all. Every evening was spent here at the only thing propping her up between dueling tournaments. Not that she put any actual labour in that is. Even if she had worked in the area briefly, her bar staff laughed at her behind her back for not being able to make their fancy specialist cocktails. The door staff that sorted out the riff raff and turned away the rejects didn't think she was much better than the people they rejected. At times she entertained some of the VIP clientele, but it was rare she was in the mood to put up with them really.

Most nights she sat at the quieter end of the bar and drank whilst letting her eyes skit around the room, people watching.

Over a week after a full moon she should have been in better form. Although she felt physically better, even if she wasn’t the best she’d ever been her mood was still in the doldrums. The new moon was yet to come. Some Werewolves felt invigorated with it; Lyra wished she was one of them.

Her slow recovery was likely something to do with the fact she still refused to use Awarewolf, despite Hanna's begging and the logical arguments against using the old fashioned Wolfsbane. Realistically she didn’t even stick to the required dosage of Wolfsbane. She denied herself the full week prior to the full moon, instead opting for the bare minimum two days before it. Most also took it for a day or two after, to aid their recovery, but again it was something she didn’t indulge in.

She took another drink and shook her head at the well meaning bar staff offering a 'bites' plate for her. They saw the sunken cheeks, the darker circles under her eyes. They knew it was her recovery time of the month and tried to look out for her; even if she rejected it all. At least she had an excuse to turn away when she noticed someone take the seat a few away from her. Her heightened senses this time of the month hadn’t settled either and usually it annoyed her, everything was too much and she was easily overwhelmed and irritated; but as her gaze was drawn towards the girl her interest was piqued. There was something familiar about her that made it difficult to draw away. Pursing her lips, she reached for the glass in front of her and took a slow sip before setting it back down and smacking her lips together.

”Do I know you?"
As her head tipped to the side to survey her a little closer, her freshly cut shorter hair fell away from her shoulder exposing the marbling of scars covering her neck, shoulder and chest on the left side. "There's something about you that's familiar..." Her tone was more on the quiet side, but the Hungarian in her accent was still fairly evident.




dahlia jade leloup

[dahlia jade leloup]

▲

The cosmopolitan she had ordered was scarily high quality, and the kind that was going to leave her wanting more as the night went on. Whether or not her date arrived - and if it was of any substance - determined how quickly she started to knock them back. With her months of no drinking due to injury, getting her liver back into working order had been a task in itself. Things seemed to be trending better, despite the occasional headache flare-up or brain fog. Nothing a little alcohol wouldn't cure though.

For now, sipping gently was her best option because she really didn't know how the night was going to turn out. Her phone was dizzy with being flipped over and over again, false vibrations and notifications for non-texts. The most frustrating one was a new chapter of 'Love At First Bite' from DarksideOfDiagon. She couldn't very well open that and read smut in the middle of a fancy bar while waiting for her date to show up. Maybe if he ended up cancelling she would...

Suddenly there was a person talking at her, and she refocused her attention from her phone to the woman that was seated near her. She was asking Dahlia if they knew one another, which was an interesting question to lead with. "The hotel, maybe?" she responded as her eyes flicked to the scar on the woman's shoulder. Dahlia knew what that meant. There was a matching one on her leg, easily distinguishable to those that knew, completely invisible to those that didn't. But still courtesy of good old dad. A constant reminder of where she came from and what she still needed to do.

"So the rumors are true then," Dahlia continued. "Though I do not find it that hard to move around as one in this country." France was a different story altogether. Despite being on a list here, and that brought up so many other questions, England still treated her better than most places she traveled to for work. "Do you come here often?" she inquired as she took another small sip of her drink.

Lyra Horváth ● 354 ● song by artist

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[Lyra Horváth]

Her lips pursed, Lyra gave a noncommittal shrug. ”I don’t frequent the hotel to be honest. But maybe…” She reached for her own strange and unusual cocktail and took another slight sip from it before carefully setting it back on the black marble bar top. Her owlish eyes latched on to the girl for another moment before she forced herself to look away, she knew her stare could be intense and she didn’t need to go scaring patrons off.

The corners of her lips quirked just slightly; not entirely sure of which rumors Dahlia alluded to. It could have been about herself owning this place, or it could be a much more vague commentary on the wizarding society as a whole in Britain.Her follow up made it slightly clearer and she tipped her head in a nod. ”Sometimes. I feel on the surface a little more accepted I suppose. But I did grow up here and being one as a teenager here; well they weren’t the best equipped to cope really. That’s when I took off to the mainland and roved there for years. I guess prejudice is still there too but it can be a littler easier to move in the shadows there. Here…” she paused for a moment, unsure of how to even phrase her feelings ”Times had changed for the better maybe, but things are stirring up here again maybe. I’m not sure I like the feel of it, but I can go elsewhere for work I suppose…” as she spoke, her gaze flitted around between Dahlia’s face and other things at the bar, eventually settling on her with a frown

”Howenever, we shouldn’t dwell on what might never happen..” forcing her face into a more pleasant expression, she motioned at the bar staff who didn’t take long in entertaining her and began pouring two shorts of a clear liquid out. For now it was easier to focus on Dahlia’s next question. ”Me?” her eyebrow cocked and a wry smile began to take over her features now ”I’m here most nights I guess. If I’m not traveling for work. But then I’m biased..” a low grumble of a laugh escaped her as the bar keep then moved to set a small shot glass in front of her and Dahlia in turn. With a more genuine, wicked grin she leaned forward and lifted hers in Dahlia’s direction. ”Prost!” throwing it down her neck in one, her face contorted just slightly with the burn of Sambuca. A slight jerk of her head worked that energy out of her body quick enough though and she turned back to her acquaintance.

”How about you? I don’t think I’ve seen you here before, but maybe I’ve missed you?” Her eyes narrowed slightly, surveying her, before she decided to at least try and put her at ease. Friends and the likes were in short supply at the minute, it wouldn’t hurt to at least be friendly. Hanna would scold her otherwise ”I’m Lyra by the way”

dahlia jade leloup

[dahlia jade leloup]

▲

For only a moment, Dahlia believed she may have been mistaken about the woman also being a werewolf, though only because finding another that didn’t utilize the hotel was uncommon these days. She supposed that anyone with the money to have a safe lockdown would do that instead. Those were goals for her someday, and even though cursebreaking paid well, such an ideal situation was years away for her still. No thanks to her recent benching from the concussion. Of course, her own follow-up comment about getting around the country as a werewolf was answered in a manner that made it more obvious that the woman was indeed afflicted with lycanthropy too. Dahlia liked to imagine that she wasn’t that bad at knowing what a bite scar looked like. Despite the woman having more insight on England’s opinions on werewolves, Dahlia still believed it was better than her experience in France. The shame that came with it was supposedly reminiscent of how her kind was treated only a few decades prior everywhere. Her embracement and hard-headedness didn’t help her at all either.

She noticed the silent gesture made towards the bartender, and two shots were placed in front of both of them. Clearly, she wasn’t kidding about being a regular. Dahlia raised her own shot glass before knocking it back. Whatever this was, she wasn’t expecting the flavor that it gave, and her eyes widened slightly at it. Clearing her throat as it burned nicely, she answered the woman, who had introduced herself as Lyra, ”It is my first time…I am supposed to meet a date, but he has yet to arrive.” Her phone screen was still black, no signs otherwise. She really didn’t care at this point. ”Dahlia,” she gave her own name in return. ”I travel a lot too. As a cursebreaker. So doing ehh…something like this does not happen often.” Strangely, she was fine with being ghosted. Half of the time, these dates turned out to be duds anyways. Meeting new people was interesting in its own right, and it did help with improving her English and understanding the culture of England. Her siblings would probably tell her she was already perfect with all of that, but Dahlia knew what it meant to be fully fluent. She knew she wasn’t there just yet.

”France is not accommodating,” she added. There was no need for her to claim that all of Europe was a safe haven when she had experienced the exact opposite. ”So it is better if they do not know, if you are there. It is why I came here to work.”

Lyra Horváth ● 436 ● song by artist

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[Lyra Horváth]

Lyra was better poised for listening tonight, rather than speaking too much about herself she was happy to sit back and listen to this girls stories as much as she'd tell them. Even if it was a sad story so far. Lyra raised an eyebrow in response. "Oh...I see" With a slight frown she reached for her drink again "Well, the night is still young, and even if he doesn't turn up. I could use company if you still want a night out. It's not a bad place to spend the night" a half smile crossed her features as she looked back to Dahlia. Her own love life was far from smooth sailing at the moment, a distraction from it would be nice.

Her head dipped in a nod of acknowledgment at her name, and she stayed quiet to listen. Her smile became a slight bit warmer when she realised she had a bit more in common with Dahlia. "An interesting line of work I'd say. Dangerous. Exciting" her canines flashed now with the idea of the thrill. "I'm a Pro-duellist. I go...well everywhere I suppose. Wherever the competition is." With another motion to the bar staff, she ordered a new drink and shrugged in Dahlia's direction. "Have whatever you want. It's on me tonight" It was an order, not really a request. Lyra didn't have many friends. She didn't like to seem desperate, or ever admit to the fact she would be; but realistically she'd do what she could to keep people around her if she felt any sort of connection to them.

"I used to be pretty high up the chain on the illegal back alley circuits though. It's why I moved in the shadows mostly. I guess everyone's a little more welcoming and accommodating when you're all the bad guys try to just make some money. Nobody really cared about my wolfish status. Just if I was going to win them money if they bet on me." A quiet rumble escaped her before she reached for the fresh drink set in front of her. A new one entirely from the last one, but more interesting it would seem, a little more of a kick to it. "I came to London for a break from it a few years ago and..." she paused, faltering slightly as she thought of the man she had met; her apparent fated Werewolf mate. And how now he had chosen a human over her. The ache in her chest had subsided over the last year, just enough; but it had never left her. The pained looked on her face was evident of that "Well at the time I stayed for one reason, but now I'm just here because I don't know quite what else to do with myself.." The sad admission made her laugh again and had her taking an even longer swig from her glass.

"Whatever, I might up and travel again. I have some big enough offers for some tournaments in the southern Hemisphere that could do me for a while" Brushing her emotions under the carpet had always been much easier to deal with it all. Deflecting worked even better "Do you work for Gringotts, or another independent firm?" At this point she wasn't fussed either way but turning the attention off of herself would make her feel better for now.

dahlia jade leloup

[dahlia jade leloup]

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The date not happening, while hopeful in the lead up, really didn’t bother Dahlia as much as felt like it should have. There were a million and one reasons why she could be getting ghosted tonight, none of which she really cared about. A first date going bust cost her nothing, aside from a couple days of chatting back and forth over text. The odds of it flittering out the next time she went abroad for a few weeks were unbelievably high and had happened many times to her already. Finding a partner at this stage in her life was sort of silly, despite her continued efforts. What tonight did achieve, though, was getting her into this swanky, exclusive bar. That was enough for her. If she spent all of her time getting hung up little things like this, then she would have been better off getting killed by the security troll all those months ago.

”Since I am already here, I do not see why not,” she shrugged. The offer was nice, because the alternative was drinking herself silly and then stumbling home. Again. As for getting all of her drinks on Lyra’s behalf, she raised her eyebrows. ”Pro-dueling pays that well?” Dahlia inquired, suddenly wondering if she was maybe in the wrong field of work. An alternative had definitely just presented itself. That was assuming the bank wouldn’t let her back, which she was sure they would. They had already stopped babysitting her and were now more focused on letting her do that for the new recruits and trainees instead.

She nodded her head to show that she understood the strange struggles that came along with their shared affliction. No one ever really knew until they were suddenly forced to deal with it. Dahlia knew that if she had grown up in England, around her now-known half-siblings, that she would have handled it so much better. But all alone at Beauxbatons? She was could not have had worse luck. ”Gringotts. Even though there are times where they can be…untrustworthy in their acquisitions, they are still better than freelance. And I get paid better.” Not to mention all of the training she went through. There were so many careers that could come out of cursebreaking once she ultimately decided to ‘retire’ from it. The Ministry seemed to be one of the pipelines, towards departments that dealt with magical accidents and other kinds of clean-up. ”Traveling is wonderful too…it has helped me find siblings that I did not know I had,” Dahlia added, the implication being that she was one of Greyback’s spawn. There was no need to hide it among her own kind, as she was sure Lyra would figure it out eventually.

Lyra Horváth ● 454 ● song by artist

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[Lyra Horváth]

After her shot, Lyra went back to drinking another cocktail the bar staff had slipped her. It was another of the more simple ones on the menu; no sparks or fireworks, but still it tasted good and for that she was grateful. Smacking her lips together she licked the remnants of powdered sugar from the rim off them and eyed Dahlia again. "Sometimes. Well, I have people surrounding me now that make me make better choices with my money; grow it in the right way. I used to be reckless, but I like to think I'm a little smarter about things now. I do have some investors in this place, it's not entirely mine, but they're silent and don't involve themselves. Which is good enough for me." With a slight tilt of her shoulders she downplayed it. She had misunderstood what Dahlia was saying and she realised that after, but didn't care to correct herself or delve any further into it really. Instead she settled on stating "It's not bad money, if a little sporadic at times. This gives me a steady income at least"

Noticing Dahlia's silence for a beat, she paused and frowned and a little more than she was comfortable sharing tipped out. "Don't get me wrong Hogwarts was horrendous when I first was bitten. Part of the reason I moved to Durmstrang the year after, but I don't know it wasn't much better. As soon as I could I left school. Left the real world.." As it struck her how much of herself she had given away she reached for her drink in a move to silence herself again. It was strange, sitting here with Dahlia. It was the most she had spoken to a stranger in a long time really, and yet she felt an parallel with her. There was a shared affliction that created an ease of sorts.

She listened as she spoke about Gringotts with a half smile. "Sometimes the stability is needed. You can't depend on freelancing all the time" Lyra watched her a closer now though, a little more fascination creeping in. Any curse breakers she had ever come across were smart. Maybe a little too smart. Lyra was no idiot, but she had flunked out of school; barely scraping a pass in only one OWL. It took a special sort of person to be a curse breaker. Dahlia didn't strike her as that, a geek essentially, but Dahlia didn't strike her as that really. Pursing her lips she stayed quiet, listening in contemplation. She didn't pick up on the implication, but the line had still peaked her interest a little more. She wouldn't push her on anything she didn't want to talk about, but she couldn't help it when a small prompt sputtered out.

"Siblings? Plural? That's a lot to take in. I have a twin brother and he was enough growing up.." She laughed quietly, but a pang struck through her chest that she tried to ignore and she focused in on Dahlia again. She hadn't thought about Leo in a long while, her extended family in even longer. She didn't exactly miss them, but there was an emptiness that they could have filled even a little bit she guessed.

dahlia jade leloup

[dahlia jade leloup]

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Dahlia realized that she must have misinterpreted something somewhere throughout their conversation. The woman sitting next to her, partially owned this bar too? A werewolf that happened to be a professional duelist, had made enough money (and by Lyra’s own words, due to smart monetary decisions guided by others) to buy this place? That they were sitting in? It should have been more apparent, Dahlia now knew, because not once had her company actually verbally ordered a drink. They sort of just appeared with a glance or a handwave. She had assumed at first that was because Lyra was a regular and the bartender knew her preferences well. Her eyes had widened more and more throughout the explanation, her drink dangling in front of her mouth as she listened. Cursebreaking had the possibility of earning good money, but nothing like what was being described to her. And bars catering to the magical community were hard to fail at. ”You are lucky. I cannot say that I am not doing well, because Gringotts pays nicely. But I did not know dueling could lead to…this,” she motioned with her hands at everything around them. She was repeating herself now, but it was helping her process the fact that Lyra was an owner of the bar.

”I have heard it is better now. At least at Hogwarts.” That was the impression she got from talking to Max. The school understood that there were going to be werewolf students, and a lot of the taboo seemed to have started to wane as more attended. ”Beauxbatons, not so much. It was terrible.” And she had to navigate it all on her own. Dahlia took a long drink from her glass as she thought back on her school days momentarily. ”But those are done and gone. People are a lot nicer when the school cannot protect them.” Not that she had threatened any of her former classmates since graduation…but she wouldn’t not do that if given the chance. Everything that had happened since school had only benefited her. There was no need to ever go back unless they begged and pleaded for her to. And threw a bag of galleons in as well.

She nodded her head eagerly after mentioning her siblings. ”You know how it happens…some of our kind do not keep to themselves as they should.” The implication being that Fenrir Greyback was a serial everything. Because what hadn’t he done at this point? She also wasn’t going to go out and blurt her lineage in the middle of a bar either. Even if everyone in here was a werewolf (which she doubted), there were some things that were better left unsaid unless asked.

Lyra Horváth ● 450 ● song by artist

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[Lyra Horváth]

Lyra's cheeks flushed slightly when her eyes cast around "Oh Merlin no, all this is because of savings i could build up from duelling and a fairly decent investor as well. But, I'm proud that I've been able to build it up better anyway. Apparently, and I'm not an accountant so I don't see the books, but, the profits have been through the roof in the last year. So I guess something's going right even if it's not all mine, just yet, although I am trying to clear as much as possible off by using those profits..." awkwardly she bit her lip and focused her attention on taking a drink instead now.

Though she listened to what Dahlia had to say about school, and nodded in agreement. There had been no legislation that really protected underage Werewolves when she had been bitten, and their parents didn't know that they should fight. Society was different and it was easier to put their head down as adults and say nothing. Easier to accept the poor conditions and make their child get on with things. She didn't entirely blame her parents, they didn't know much better, or ways they could improve things. But that didn't mean there still wasn't a low lying bitterness towards them, for well, everything. She was just glad for the younger people now things had improved. Maybe part of that was because her generation had grown up and tried to incite that change, maybe not, but she liked to think it was. Even if she had very little to do with it all, her supposed safe space in this bar was her part being played. "I hope it's better anyway. I haven't been that unfortunate to run into anyone from school really I suppose, but I'll take your word for it..."

Though she went quiet again as Dahlia lit up, seemingly eager to speak about her siblings. Lyra wondered what that would be like. She had once been so close to her twin brother, but now she wasn't even sure she could point him out on the street. There had been a level of found family with EPKE ROBERTUS OPPEDYK of course, before all that had fallen away. She would always have hanna horváth , her closest cousin, the closest thing she would ever have to a sibling. But the more she listened to Dahlia, she found herself growing almost jealous. She nodded in an understanding that she didn't entirely have. No, she didn't really know the way she meant, but now wasn't the time to question that. She had become slightly more withdrawn though as she thought on it. She had always thought she would love to be less alone in the world. She had Hanna, of course, but she would never truly understand it all. Her owlish eyes bore into Dahlia, when she spoke again she was almost hesitant but the curiosity was eating away at her and definitely winning.

"Do you have many siblings? Do you know them all, and get on with them all?" when it had escaped her lips, she realised how rude she had sounded, and immediately frowned, wishing she could take it back. Her cheeks coloured and she wished the ground would swallow her up so instead she busied herself and took a drink. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean for it to come out like that. It's just....I've always been alone. I mean it must be nice to have them..." there was something wistful as she locked eyes with Dahlia again, before realising she was staring and forced her gaze to drop away as to not seem too intense. Maybe she should just leave this girl alone.

dahlia jade leloup