I'm dyin' to see how this one ends | Lucy & Anna

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Lucy had a feeling that after the events of the last week, she’d need to attend a few funerals. It was part of the greater political game, sometimes lives had to be exchanged for the greater good of the world. She knew it would be more suspicious than not if she had refused to attend these funerals, and for the greater good of her own life, she needed to act surprised and grieved by the loss of her aunt, the minister for magic. She had been acting all of her life, what was one more family event? She showed up late to the service and stood in the back. She had been dragging her feet the whole way there. She wore a little black dress that was way tighter than appropriate for a funeral, and stiletto black heels with her hair cascading down her shoulder. No one would confuse her for Anna at least.

But as people were filtering out of the service and heading towards the reception area, she saw Anna. Sitting close to the front with their parents and she genuinely was distraught. Her sister was so emotional. And it always broke Lucy. She rolled her eyes and ducked out of the hall. After grabbing a drink in the reception area, she set out to find her sister. When she finally spotted her, she made her way across the room to her. “Hey there you, how are you doing?” she asked softly.

@annelise

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Anna was in shock. Even though a week had passed she could still hardly believe the news. Her aunt was gone? Dead? She knew it was true. There was no way she could have escaped that explosion and there were thousands of witnesses who had placed her there moments before it happened. It just ... seemed almost like too much. Anna felt bad for her cousins, for her aunts and uncles. No one wanted to go through something like this, but she honestly wasn't too surprised. Elaine's supporters were growing braver. There had been evidence of that for a while now. She just hadn't paid attention to the signs. 

So Anna went to the funeral when the time came. Despite the fact that she normally couldn't stand doing a lot with her parents, this was a special occasion and they weren't asking her about her life, so she sat with them. She was sure her mother would appreciate that and if her father decided to start talking about things Anna didn't want to talk about ... well, she would just have to leave. 

The funeral was sad. Anna tried to hold in the tears, but she couldn't. At least she wasn't sobbing uncontrollably. Her tears were the silent kind, which she was grateful for. 

It was in the time directly after the funeral that Lucy came to her. Anna forced a smile as her sister approached. "Hey Luc," she greeted with a nod. "I'm ... doing better than expected, I guess." She hadn't been particularly close to their aunt, but she had trusted her and received advice from her, on occasion. It was sad that could never happen again. 

@lucyweasley

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Lucy knew Anna didn’t really want to be there either. She knew she wasn’t very close with their parents either, but she was close with other members of their family: cousins and grandparents mostly. So the loss of their aunt would take some sort of toll on her. There were very few members of the Weasley family that Lucy cared enough about to talk to, let alone be sad about at their funerals. Otherwise, it was just one less blood traitor in the world. But blood was blood. She had to at least act like she cared. “That’s good.” she replied easily with an encouraging nod to her sister. “and you don’t have to stay the whole time, you know. You can leave whenever you’re done.” knowing Anna, she’d probably want to stay and help clean up and they were able to talk her into it.

@annelise

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Honestly, Anna was a little surprised to see Lucy here. As of late, her sister hadn’t been doing many family things. Of course, it was expected that she would be here, but that didn’t mean Lucy would come. She didn’t always come to family things, even when it was expected. Anna understood that, to a point. She knew that her sister didn’t always get along with their cousins but that was family, right? Anna didn’t always get along with them either. Still, she was glad to see Lucy. She, at least, would understand (or at least try to) what Anna was thinking. She quirked an eyebrow at her sister. “I don’t have to stay? So you’re giving me permission to leave early then?” She teased, appreciating the chance to forget, for a second, why they were all here. “Maybe I’ll just leave with you,” she commented, but the comment was more of a question. “I’m sure we could find something more fun than this ...” was Anna really suggesting they ditch the party? Yes, she was. Honestly, she just wanted to relax a bit with someone who wouldn’t judge her. That meant Lucy. 

@lucyweasley

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Lucy had never been a fan of family gatherings but especially since graduation and moving out on her own, she had avoided them at all costs. It wasn’t that she hated them all, though she would say she disliked most of them, but it was more that it wasn’t really the crowd she wanted to be seen with. It was hard to do what she did when there were people like her cousins and aunts and uncles breathing down her back and asking about her life. Why couldn’t they all mind their own business? Why did they care so much?

Anna teased her when she said that she didn’t have to stay. It was the truth. She was sure her sister could think of things she’d rather be doing anywhere else. But Lucy also knew she felt a greater obligation to their family than Lucy did. “I probably won’t stay long.” she agreed easily. “I’ll just make the rounds and then probably sneak out the back.” it was true, but she tried to make it sound more like a joke than it was. “I’ll shoot you the signal when it’s go-time.” she teased.

@annelise

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Anna was definitely not surprised that her sister wasn't planning on staying long for the reception. Which, in all honesty, was a relief. Anna didn't want to stay long either. While she loved all her family and the chance to spend time with them, this was too painful. She just wanted a small break from the pain, a relief from the struggles she was going through. Wouldn't it be nice to just go out with Lucy and do something else instead? Sure, it was selfish, but Anna was finding that at the moment she didn't really care how selfish it was. She often did things for other people, even when she didn't want to. It was about time that she did something she wanted to do, no matter what anyone else thought about it. 

She smiled at her sister's comment about "making the rounds" and nodded. Anna could mingle for a while, especially if she knew that she was going to be leaving soon. It would make it that much easier to talk to others when she knew she wouldn't have to stay all night. "I'll be watching," she answered, quirking her eyebrows before walking away. She started mingling with cousins and aunts and uncles, always watching in the corner of her eye for Lucy's "signal".

@lucyweasley

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If they didn’t think that Lucy being here would count as her family activity for the foreseeable future they could all think again. She now had the perfect excuse to skip christmas dinner. They had seen enough of each other at the funeral. So she figured she might as well make sure that everyone saw that she was there. If she hadn’t shown up it would look way too suspicious. But she still couldn’t help feeling the glee in her chest knowing this was all according to a plan that she helped enact. The minister had fallen. Finally. She walked around, hugging cousins and chatting with others. They made polite small talk about work and life now. She hadn’t seen many of them since last Christmas. Including her parents. She greeted them politely, but didn’t spend much time trying to catch up with them, despite their efforts to talk to both of their daughters. Anna seemed in a similar position.

When she felt like she had made enough of an appearance, she excused herself from conversation with her uncle Bill and insisted that she needed to get some rest before rehearsal tonight. She looked around, made eye contact with her twin, and gave an overly dramatic yawn, winking to her sister before she walked over to the coat rack to collect her jacket. “Act like you’re just exhausted and keep your head down.” Lucy said for little reason other than wanting to play up the drama of the situation. She didn’t want to be rude, but she didn’t want anyone to be mad at Anna for choosing to leave either.

@annelise

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Lucy actually stayed way longer than Anna expected her to, but Anna wasn't upset about that. She talked with cousins, aunts and uncles. She avoided her parents, not really wanting to get into another argument with them. They always fought when they got together. Sure, that was mostly between her and her father, but Anna's mother didn't really do anything to help either. So avoiding them was really the best solution. They didn't try too hard to talk with her either. Maybe they wanted to keep the peace too. 

Anna kept an eye on Lucy, frequently glancing over to see what her sister was doing. When Lucy decided she was done, it was easy for Anna to tell. She held back an eyeroll and a small smile, though she did approach her sister, who told her to act exhausted. Following her sister's lead, Anna yawned and grabbed her own jacket as well. "Any plans for where we should go?" she asked after a minute. 

@lucyweasley

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Lucy could tell that her sister was beyond ready to go by the time that they were gathering their coats and heading out the door. Lucy had taken more time than she would have wanted, but she wanted to make sure that everyone saw her there, and that everyone saw her acting sad and sorrowful for the loss of their aunt. There was no way that she could be tied to the explosion anyway, but she wanted to make extra sure that anyone there tonight would have believed her to be as distraught as everyone else there.

Anna asked if she had any thoughts of where they should go now that they were out of there, Lucy shrugged. “Wannah go get something to eat?” she wanted a drink, but she wouldn’t bring her sister to one of the dodgy pubs she frequented. She’d take Anna someplace more presentable, maybe the three broomsticks or some muggle joint in London.

@annelise