Help Me, I'm Falling From Grace.

Audriana paced the floor of the main gathering hall of their home, wondering again how she had ended up with a place such as this when she didn’t deserve it. She hadn’t earned it, nor had she done anything worthy of the wonder around her.


Gavin would be home within the hour; she had memorized his schedule as of late, to ensure that by the time he was home, she would be acting like herself again. She didn’t care if someone like Avery found out – they wouldn’t want to forgive her. She didn’t deserve it. But Gavin, he would want to believe in her, and that just wouldn’t do.


She just couldn’t believe she had done it. It was her fault, and six months later she had failed to say anything or even find out if the girl was all right. Audriana seriously doubted it.


It was the fifteenth time in a row that she had turned down a job, regardless of how stir crazy she was becoming. But every time someone asked her to go somewhere or find something, the memory of The Incident came up and gnawed at her until she turned them down.


- -

She wasn’t supposed to be there, the redhead. No one was supposed to be there except Audriana and the contact. And yet, she came walking in like nothing was wrong, like there was nothing strange about finding two strangers locked in a stalemate. Wand pointed at the Death Eater, Audriana’s eyes widened in fear for the girl as she marched in without paying attention. The redhead had a bounce in her step and her eyes on the bags in her hands. Whoever she was, she dressed as though she were returning to work, or headed there to start the afternoon at the office.

When the girl looked up, her eyes locked with Audriana’s before they jumped back and forth between the two people waiting for someone to make the first move. No one spoke, but Audriana caught the tell on his face as he made to direct his wand at the newcomer, his mouth twitching upward from one corner. Finally, Audriana’s mouth moved, to shout an order.

“Move!”

The redhead looked back at Audriana, not sure which way she was meant to go, but finally decided on taking off to move towards the brunette, clearly aiming for the alleyway behind the older woman. It was probably on her way back to work, Audriana mused in the moments before she realized the girl was trying to pass in front of her instead of behind. “No,” she breathed, lips barely opening.

Directing a curse at the Death Eater, Audriana cast without thinking, her spell collided with his, both hitting the redhead at the same moment and shining a blindingly bright light. In an instant, the contact was gone and the girl collapsed, bags strewed across the rubble pathway.

The fact that not weeks ago Audriana had found herself in this position with her own husband wasn’t lost on her, but this time it was her fault. At least partially. Her entire body felt numb as she jumped into action, brushing the girl’s hair back from her face and checking to see if she were breathing.

She was, but only barely.

Audriana’s breaths stopped too as she wrapped an arm around the redhead’s shoulders and apparated them away. When, some time later, the woman at the front desk caught her attention, Aud looked up in question, knowing that they would tell her what was going on.

The healers said the girl wouldn’t speak again.

Audriana finally understood why Avery had blamed herself. The brunette had failed to save this stranger who deserved none of what she had been handed. It wasn't fair, and Audriana hadn't been able to stop it, nor fix it. The healers clearly hadn't been able to, either. She fought to catch her breath, gasps pushing though more than average exhales could. Turning to leave, she brushed past a blonde man who appeared desperate to get to whomever he knew in the hospital. He reminded Audriana of Robin.

Until he'd called out to the front desk, voicing the redhead's name.

- -


Audriana sank to the couch, hands pushing through her hair, short as it was. If it ended up messy, she would just tidy it back into place before he walked through the door. Gavin couldn’t see this. So far, he hadn’t noticed her smaller appetite, considering the pregnancy. She knew it was irresponsible, but as much as she tried to change, the idea of eating just made her sick. Eventually the problem would become too much and she would just force herself. In the hours that Gavin spent at work, Audriana found herself pacing the halls, ignoring the fact that she missed Sophia, or curled in the sheets.

The absolute realization that she had, almost single-handedly, destroyed potential for the girl – whose name, she learned later, was Mairen. Avery’s letters lay on the table, face down so Audriana could pretend they didn’t say what she knew they did.


At first, the brunette hadn’t understood why the blonde had chosen to contact her, of all people, but then she realized that Avery didn’t want her to find out later. If Avery had found someone in need of a trip to the hospital, she wouldn’t have left it at that. Audriana didn’t want to, either, but the idea of seeing the girl again was painful. She wasn’t as dauntless as she liked to pretend. That was impossible.

The second letter had arrived later that evening, and Gavin had mercifully been absent when the owl showed at her window. It was the one that said that the girl’s father had left, too. Apparently Mairen had expected as much. Avery wanted to know if Audriana wanted to see the redhead, too.

There was nothing she had wanted less as far as she could remember.

The ex-Gryffindor had questioned her sorting for three days now, trying to convince herself to go. She could tell Mairen the truth if she went, if she brought herself to face her. She was no Hufflepuff who turned away in the face of trouble, Audriana chided herself as she sighed and reached for the blank parchment set in front of her, writing a promise that she would join the blonde on her trip to Mairen’s place the next afternoon.

Standing on shaking legs, Audriana pushed herself to the window, sending the letter away with Gavin’s owl as she didn’t have one of her own. The chill from outside was welcome, even though it bit at her skin. All the better.

Just as she was closing the window again, the front door opened and she bolted back to the coffee table, snatching the letters up before stuffing them into her pocket and heading into the bedroom to put them into her drawer and put her hair back into its normal state of being.


The door closed, footsteps sounded, and Audriana put on a smile regardless of her knowledge that the next day would bring inordinate amounts of stress.


“Gavin? That you, sweetheart?”