Now, Holly was definitely not someone who enjoyed the frills and lace of Valentine's Day. Usually, she hated it, it was in the top five list of things she hated, but this year? She felt like celebrating. It had been a damn good year, and Holly was taking every opportunity to showcase the good bloody mood she'd been in. Sure, there had been its blips (McCormack owed her quite some bit), and each moment made her appreciate each and every day.

But that was the sort of sappy stuff she and her husband didn't say, so that was why she had insisted that their visit to Hogsmeade tonight was to crack jokes and judge the couples that took this holiday way too seriously.

It was turning out to not be as horrendous as one may have thought. Hogsmeade was a village on display, each store front lit up with lights, the street lamps giving off sprays of glitter and confetti as couples walked past. The different food places had set up heating spells around outside tables and counters, the aroma completely filling her every sense. The lake had turned into a beautiful ice rink, while a magical ferris wheel lit up the sky. The village had always amazed her, knowing that it was the only place in the country wizards and witches could be completely at ease with their magic outside of Hogwarts.

"Good thing they didn't let the kiddies out," Holly said, eyes catching sight of the castle in the distance. "They'd ruin the romance."

- Hogsmeade is open to all! The village streets are sort of like a Valentine's fair, hosted by Madam Puddifoot's (so you know there's some cheesy stuff).
- For some ADDED FUN, a little trickster has laced the chocolate supply with a truth serum. The amount of chocolate your character ingests, the more truthful/the longer they are under its spell. Soo...that could lead to some fun, y/y? >:D
- ALSO, for players on non British Isles teams, this is the last weekend to be home because practice for the WC starts after Valentine's Day! So get those feels out because you're shipping out!

It was almost 4 in the morning when Donovan Rookwood finally entered in through his front door, looking as though he hadn’t slept in the last 48 hours - which he hadn’t. Not really, anyway. He had a new case to work on which was taking up so much of his time that he barely had any time to spend with his wife and son. He was damn good at his job, and people knew he got results because he put this kind of time into things, but he had forgotten how much it took to try and find someone as ‘innocent’ when all the evidence was stacked against them. His currently client was a witch who claimed she was innocent against charges of her murdering her own sister, and even her smug attitude made him suspect she at least had something to do with it. Still, it wasn’t his job to have an opinion, it was his job to make sure she didn’t wind up in Azkaban.

He moved around the house as quietly as he could, not wanting to wake Danielle or Cole. He dropped himself down onto the couch, working on removing his tie and draping it across its arm, soon after bringing his hands up to rub at his face. The trial wasn’t the only thing that was preventing him from getting any sleep. There was something going down at the ministry, but he didn’t know what. He heard whispers, but with the way gossip spread like wildfire, he didn’t know what to believe anymore.

He was about to just lay himself across the couch in order to catch an hour or two of sleep when he suddenly heard Cole begin to cry. He hesitated a moment to see if he would be able to get himself back to sleep (he had heard Danielle use the term ‘self soothing’ once or twice), but once it became apparent that he wasn’t going to be able to doze off again, his father hurried to his room, hoping to get there and calm him down before he woke Dani.

“Shh....” He hushed the child as he reached into his crib, taking him into his arms before dropping down onto the rocking chair that was set up, placing him down on his leg so he was facing outwards, Donovan’s arm around his middle in order to support him. “What’re you carrying on about, hm..?” He asked quietly, leaning forward in order to allow Cole to see him. The baby just made a noise before lifting his hand and placing it on his father’s face. Donovan smirked, leaning in to press a kiss to one of his pudgy cheeks before he let out a sigh, bouncing him on his leg a bit. “I swear, you’re as dramatic as your mother.”

She'd been standing at the bottom of the stairs that led to the front door of her home for about fifteen minutes. Danielle swayed in her spot, wondering why none of the pedestrians that had passed her by had asked if she needed help or was lost. That was rude, she believed. If she'd seen a person simply standing there, wavering on their own two feet and looking ready to keel over into the rubbish bin, she would have been concerned. Danielle sucked in a deep breath through her nose, trying to give herself the energy to make it up the few steps. She didn't even intend on going in the house, she simply needed to knock on the door and hope that her husband was home.

The weary healer was coming off of a grueling forty-eight hour shift. St. Mungo's was a madhouse and being short staffed because so many of their healers and nurses were falling ill from this mystery virus, it was up to those who had managed to remain healthy to pick up the slack. Danielle could not remember the last time she had fallen ill, but she had deduced that since her pregnancy, she had been prone to more bouts of sneezing and coughing than she'd liked. Her exhaustion could be blamed on the ridiculous shift she had just finished or it could be, and Danielle found it more likely, the fact that she had indeed contracted the virus.

Bother, bother, bother.

A light went on in a second floor room of her home, Cole's room. Donovan was home. Of course he would be---the light gave Danielle the energy she needed and she ascended the stairs, holding onto the railing with all her might. She reached the door and knocked heavily, leaning her forehead on the wood until she heard footsteps approaching. Danielle stood straight, blinking furiously as the door opened. Aw, her husband!

"Is it still Valentine's Day?" she inquired, suddenly quite concerned about the commercial holiday she'd worked straight through, and she studied Donovan's face seriously.

She'd done it. Bianca wasn't even going to apologize for the thought; she'd done it. These past few weeks leading up to the wedding had been so nerve-wracking, worse than any training she'd gone through, more terrifying than any mission she'd been on, worse than...she really thought that she was not going to make it down the aisle. The guilt and the fear had nearly paralyzed her, but putting on her wedding dress, seeing her closest friends dressed up and looking so very happy for her, a last minute owl from Bertram that made things all seem right.

Well, she practically ran down the aisle after that!

The reception had turned out beautifully, and she really, really had to thank her mother for making her have such an event. All the planning leading up to it had been stressful, but it had made her stronger, and Bianca's life depending on being able to push through anything life threw at her. Her hair was down and out of the twist it had been forced into this morning; if she was going to dance and party, she was surely going to have her hair flying about.

A particuarly happy tune came on and she grabbed Amissa's hand, bouncing happily with the little girl who was now officially her step-daughter. The thought thrilled her, and Bianca caught Bertram's eye with a big grin.

It had been her first night back home since being in the hospital, and Danielle had certainly welcomed it. She had missed being with Donovan, feeling terrible that he was spending his nights either alone or in a strange position on a couch by her bedside. She had missed being home, and though there had been concerns about going back she trusted the wards that had been put up and approved by the hitwizards and aurors. Danielle trusted that the magic would keep them safe and that relaxed her.

She wouldn't deny that the first sleep was a somewhat restless one. At Mungo's they'd given her sleep draught but she didn't want to keep taking it, she didn't want to need it. Danielle had thought that being in their own bed and lying with Donovan would be enough to help her through the night, but her subconscious seemed to have been entrapped by visions of the swirling black magic creeping into everything. She'd tossed and turned, but at least she was home and with her husband.

Danielle had huffed when the healers (her coworkers who knew her so well) had told her she needed to be on bed rest for a few more days. But apparently they knew what they were doing as she hadn't woken up when Donovan got up, and it was late into the morning before she finally woke. Instead of getting out of bed and getting dressed, Danielle got to work---well, the only work she could do. The exercises the other healers had told her to do to help bring full mobility to her arm were simple and boring, but Danielle focused intently on bending her fingers, touching each one to her thumb, not caring that her hair was completely mussed around her head and her eyes were still squinted with sleep. It amazed her how such a simple task was proving difficult, but it was her astonishment and interest in how this dark magic worked that kept her from growing angry that she had to do this at all.

At least, that's what she was focusing on.

The entire day had been absolutely exhausting, even before he had been disturbed at work with the troubling news that his wife and a family friend had been attacked, and were now at Mungo’s recovering. He had gotten a late start to his day, his secretary had knocked over a couple of files – it was just one of those days where he knew nothing was going to go according to plan. He just never banked on things getting this bad, which was a mistake on his part. Maybe if he always anticipated the worst, he wouldn’t be so surprised, so hurt when things like this happened.

What kind of miserable existence he would have if he thought like that, though. He’d forever be expecting bad things to happen, and his neuroticism would eventually drive him crazy. He needed to find the middle ground between being consistently paranoid, and being hopeful that the worst was over and done with. It was just so hard to do, when the bar kept being set higher and higher.

He was tired emotionally, physically, mentally, spiritually – however many ways a human being could be exhausted, Donovan was feeling it. He felt hollow, and wasn’t even sure if he’d be able to sleep properly in his own home that night, knowing what had transpired there only hours ago. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to sleep without Danielle laying there beside him, but the healers said they wanted to observe her over night. Maybe that was for the best – at least he knew she was safe there. He’d likely wind up falling asleep in the chair next to her bed, and would wake up with several kinks in his back and neck, but it was the only way he would be able to get any rest at all.

But before he could do that, there was one more thing he needed to do – he needed to see Rachel, the other woman who had been hurt while she was visiting with Danielle, who just so happened to be Gabriel’s wife. He managed to get something of a second wind, gaining enough energy to rise to his feet and approach the nurse’s desk, asking which room she was in. Danielle still wasn’t conscious, but he told the healers to keep him informed if she woke up, so he could be there. Until then, he moved slowly through the hospital corridors until he reached Rachel’s room. A gentle rap was given on the open door, just so she knew someone was in the doorway. He didn’t see Gabriel, from where he was standing, so he had to assume he only had a limited window of opportunity to speak with Rachel while she was alone.

"I'm not disturbing you, am I?"

He barely even recognized his own voice that night. It felt like it took most of his energy, just to produce intelligible words.

Gabriel had never been in quite a state, and this nurse, who had not done anything more but sit behind the large round desk and do her crosswords, was not helping his state.

"It has been nearly forty-five minutes, how could you possibly not have any more information? What kind of establishment are you running? I need to speak to the Healer-in-Chief, this is not acceptable---"

The nurse put her hand up and stood. Gabriel's mouth shut tightly as he listened to her repeat, once again, that when the healers were done with the spell casting that needed to be done on Rachel and Danielle that they would let them know. 'Dark magic takes time and care, Mr. Corner.' It was always the part of the nurse's spiel that quieted his rage. Dark magic. The war had been over for more than a year, but here he was, in St. Mungo's because of an attack on his wife and his best friend's wife. Dark magic. The seriousness of the situation could not be lifted, it could not be avoided, it could not be denied. Dark magic.

He pushed away from the counter and stalked back to the seats of the waiting room. It was empty save for he and Donovan; the ward for dark magic attacks had been the quietest in St. Mungo's for months, it was as if the healers there didn't know what to do with themselves. Gabriel dropped down into the seat beside Donovan, knowing that his friend was in quite the right state himself. He stared at his friend for a few seconds before clapping his hand on Donovan's shoulder in reassurance.

"They're going to be fine," Gabriel said, though he wasn't sure how believable he sounded.

Donovan had come to realize that ever since it had been made public news that he and Danielle were going to have a baby, people thought it was okay to ask them any and every question they could think of – Is it a boy or a girl? Do you have a name picked out? Do you have a theme for the nursery? Is the paint going to be dark or light blue? Are you going to get a nanny?

She wasn’t even far enough along for her to be showing, which made it hard for them to be able to tell them all the things they wanted to know. He was actually kind of surprised by how many times they had to look at each other over he course of the night, like they were trying to kinetically formulate an answer other than ‘we’re not sure’, which was how they answered most of the questions that night. He wanted to be able to talk more about the little boy who wouldn’t be there until late August, but seeing how he was barely even a person yet inside his wife’s belly, it was hard to have all the answers.

Tonight had been especially grueling, seeing how they had been out with a few of his co-workers and their families, and each of them decided that instead of listening to the questions they had already been asked, they were all just going to ask them the same ones over and over again, until the Rookwoods were able to recite their answers like lines from a play. They had just parted ways with the last couple, making their way down the sidewalk towards their house. It was freezing, and he was walking with his arm slinked around Danielle’s waist, allowing her to lean against him as they walked so she wasn’t cold.

“How’re you holding up?”

He asked the question with a subtle lift of his brow, looking down at his wife, wondering if she was as mentally drained as he was.

WHO: Danielle and Donovan Rookwood
WHAT: She has some very startling news for him!
WHERE: Donovan's offices
WHEN: TOOOODAY!

( You need to send your client away )

Everything had gone off without a hitch.

Danielle wanted to cry for more than their vows, she was just so elated that the ceremony hadn't been interrupted by someone angry at the both of them, anyone who found it wrong for them to be together. It felt like all these months of turmoil and tears had been pointing towards this day, and Danielle was going to love every second of this day.

Her hands rested behind her back as she listened to her father's story about his wedding day. Danielle rocked on her heels with a smile on her face, so happy that she was going to have stories to share with her family, their future children, and anyone else who was willing to listen. The party was small, just their closest friends and family (Rian had come! He'd come!), and it was just what Danielle had always wanted. The wedding was supposed to be about her and Donovan, it had always been Donovan, and to have her fantasy come true was astounding.

And it wasn't even the felix felicis they had given all of their guests as favors, talking.

She was about to comment on how her father seemed to be getting misty eyed when a hand rested on her waist. Danielle turned and smiled brightly at her husband, and excused herself from her family to pay some attention to him.

"Have I told you how handsome you look today?"

Who: Danielle and Donovan
What: Disowned...
Where: The Rookwood's flat
When: Tuesday afternoon
Status: Completing in comments

( I tried telling them how sorry I was. How I never meant to cause them any pain, or humiliation…how I did everything I could, to keep Augustus safe… )

Who: Open to everyone snooty enough to be invited.
What: Ariel's wake.
Where: Christopher's family estate.
When: Sometime this week, before Friday? Sure.
Rating: PG-13, I'm guessing.
Status: Incomplete.

( Somber tones overtook the large gathering at the Loftus estate... )

WHO: Danielle Kettleburn & Donovan Rookwood
WHAT: Sad times
WHERE: Their house
WHEN: Uhmm backdated to when he was released!
STATUS: Finishing in comments!

( ...do you think I’m doing the right thing? )

Danielle would not refer to Donovan as a--as a prisoner because her boyfriend would be out of there as soon as humanely possible! Donovan was not a death eater, he did not participate in those terrible, horrible---some of his best friends were halfbloods and muggleborns, he---she was a halfblood, so---it didn't make any sense, why would they think?

In her very logical thought process, her mind concluded that Augustus must have decided to drag his brother down with him. There was no way that Donovan could honestly be linked to any of the atrocities that a death eater might commit, but---Danielle did not know for a fact that her boyfriend's older brother was a death eater, but he'd always said the most horrible of things to her under his breath, he'd always given her these terrible chills. It was--it was not hard to believe that Augustus was a death eater.

But not Donovan, not her Donovan.

The hitwizard opened the gate and Danielle stood stiffly in the entry way as she waited for him to give her permission to enter. She'd been in these holding cells before, to help injured prisoners. It was how she'd gotten through here so quickly; she'd raced to the ministry and offered up her services as the healer who would give the two latest prisoners a physical exam. Unless they realized who she was before she could get into the cell, Danielle would have a much closer visit with Donovan than would have been otherwise allowed.

"Rookwood, get up," said the hitwizard as he removed some of the magical bars to let Danielle through, "Sit up for the healer."

WHO: Danielle Kettleburn and Donovan Rookwood
WHAT: Secrets from their past are revealed from unlikely places?
WHERE: A cafe, then his flat
WHEN: The other day lmao idk

( There’s nothing that can come between us, now… )