Alfie Pye
August 29, 2016 5:37 PM
You can run but you can't hide. by Alfie Pye
Alfie kept a close eye on his brother over the next few days. It was a simple, complex spell, one he had done countless times in a jam. But never had it been something like this. He had left the Pyes and their legacy behind, he was trying to start over and get away from all the darkness that came with manipulating spells and using them illegally. There was part of him that felt as though what he had done was wrong, but he couldn’t help it. He had worked so hard to get away from the reputation of the Pyes that Cecily and her aurors were currently hot on the trail of so that when the whole family did come crashing down he would be nowhere near it, but instead Barnaby had been sent to follow him and he was being dragged back in. He wouldn’t have been able to stand there and let his little brother make the same mistakes their father and their grandfather had made before them. And through protecting Barnaby, he had just turned himself into Alden Pye 2.0.It would only be a matter of time before Barnaby met Bo’s fate. How old had Bo been? Fifteen? Sixteen? A few days before his seventeenth birthday, if he recalled family history correctly but then again his mind was such a muddle on that for reasons that were not entirely his fault that Alfie couldn’t be sure. He fisted his hands in his hair and pulled—hard enough to hurt, but not hard enough to actually rip any hair out. He felt like a failure, as though all those years of trying had done nothing. It appeared that fate worked for everyone like it worked for Oedipus and why should he have been any different?
The days turned into weeks and though it seemed as though no one had noticed much of a difference in Barnaby, Alfie was still on edge. He’d had to tell the Headmaster and Headmistress about the switching of rooms of course, no matter how embarrassing it had been for him to go up there and say that it was his half-brother who had been bullying one of his dorm mates. It was because of his duty to protect the students placed in his care that he had done this—an attention to duties was a very integral part of being Alfie Pye, but he almost instantly regretted the confession. He knew it would cause close eyes on his brother and though he would have been happy for the extra eyes any other time, he worried over what it would mean for himself. He had acted rashly, after all, he hadn’t really thought before he had whipped out his wand and taken things from Barnaby that weren’t his to take. And if any of the other professors noticed a change…
Alfie didn’t want to think about it, but he knew it would land him in hot water. He slammed his hand down on the table, ignoring the smarting pain from the smack of his flat palm against the wood surface. He was going to have to leave Sonora, it was the only way. Maybe not today, maybe not that year or the next one, but he would have to. He couldn’t stay and wait to get found out or stay and be constantly worried that someone would realise he had not only used spells on a student one should never use on a student, but that he had also broken some of the sacred vows he had made all those years ago. Alfie stood up and stared at the mess of an office he had become so accustomed to over the past five years. It was odd to think that he had become fond of his job and his students when only half a decade ago he had been ready to leave at a moment’s notice if it weren’t for lack of jobs in the field he was qualified for.
Perhaps it was because Alfie knew that teaching Defense was one of his last options seeing as his father had exhausted all other options in order to force his oldest son out of the country, and he although he would miss his position at Sonora, he didn’t want to go teach at Hogwarts—he couldn’t be trusted around kids, not anymore. But it wasn’t just that. He had made connections here, real connections. He hadn’t had that in ages, not since his last days at Hogwarts, anyway. At Sonora he had Isis and Amelle and he'd had Tallec...up until his friend had left earlier that year, anyway. Maybe that was a sign, Alfie thought to himself as he ran his fingers through his dark hair with defeat. Perhaps it was time for him to move on. He could find Tallec or camp outside Cecily’s front door, maybe. He scoffed. Jake was a nice guy, but he wasn’t an idiot. Alfie was sure that if he took to camping outside his ex-fling’s door then there would be some sort of altercation sooner or later and as much as he wanted to punch that nice guy in the middle of his face he couldn’t. Because of her.
But moving in with Tallec wouldn’t be too bad, Alfie supposed. He didn’t want to drag the rather innocent ex-Care of Magical Creatures professor in on all his family load though, but stopping through on his way out couldn’t hurt. After all, it had been awhile since they’d shared a drink together. It was that thought, however that caused Alfie’s eyes to bug out. He was late. He had promised to meet Amelle and Isis and that new guy for drinks and he was late. A quick look in the mirror told Alfie that he couldn’t afford to appear in public like that, that he would need to at least change into a shirt that wasn’t creased and didn’t smell like whiskey, that he probably should rinse out his mouth and splash his face with cold water so that his glazed over eyes had some spark of life in them. If it was to be one of the last times he hung out with the gang, it would be best to go out in style.
OOC: Permission from “the gang” to say they were all going out later that night.
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Alfie Pye
You can run but you can't hide.
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