WHO: Amycus Carrow & Alecto Carrow
WHAT: Big sis needs to bail her little brother out of shit.
WHEN: October '78
WHERE: Foresty Area/Alecto's flat/Foresty Area/Alecto's Flat, in that order
NOTE: Amycus → Liv

Amycus Carrow was hysterical. There's no other word for what he was feeling: stomach-churning, gut-clenching fear and panic and absolute sheer terror. His assignment had not been complex - simple, no, but not complex either - it was something that he was more than capable of doing. He had accepted and set off with complete confidence, with the full knowledge he'd be back at Alecto dwellings above the shop within twenty minutes and in time for a late dinner.

Problem #1: Over-confidence. That was where he had failed. Amycus had barely arrived at the address he had been given by the Dark Lord when the trouble started. Someone had set up some form of crude magical security system...yet it had been enough to alert whoever he was meant to...'dispose of'...of his arrival. No sooner than Amycus had realised what had happened, a stunning spell whizzed past his ear. He'd sworn loudly and dived to the ground, but he wasn't terribly concerned yet. He knew that he, ultimately, would be the winner. The this person, this assignment, would be completed with competence. Twenty minutes later, Amycus knew that he was wrong, very much wrong indeed. Although he had sussed out that there was only one person at the dwelling - which he was pleased to note was in the middle of Merlin-knows-where - and that he wasn't taking on a whole group single handedly.

Clutching his arm, which was leaking blood from a red, angry looking slash from his shoulder to his elbow, Amycus and his opponent were still in battle. He hadn't seen them yet, and this concerned him. He did not know who he was up against, how long they'd be able to hold out against him, if he needed back up.

The next three seconds answered this question for him. In a fit of anger, Amycus fired the Cruciatus curse towards where he thought his opponent was - hurrah, he was right - and listened to the screams for a moment, before flicking his wand lazily to stop. There was a thudding sound, and then silence. Triumphant, Amycus slipped quickly through the trees to where he knew he would find his opponent, addled and unconscious, ready for him to -

There was no-one there. Thinking he must have misjudged where they must be, he backtracked a little. Nothing. He swung to his left. Nothing. His right? Nothing. The silence was chilling, and unnerving. Amycus had to get back-up. He could not - he could not, under any circumstances - allow this person to get away. The Dark Lord had stressed how important this was. He was sufficiently confident that his opponent was too injured to attempt Apparition. With a deep breath to try and calm his jittering nerves, Amycus Carrow Disapparated with a soft crack and stumbled forward into Alecto's kitchen, gasping for breath.

"Alecto! I need - help - come, I need - I'll explain later - they're getting away - he'll punish me if I don't - come, QUICK!" He bellowed at his sister, grabbing her arm to Side-Along Apparate back to where he came from.

Alecto had been somewhere in the middle of boiling a pot of water when her brother appeared beside her in the kitchen, looking disheveled, hurt, and above all, panicky. She hardly understood a word that came out of his mouth, but that was the least of her worries as the surprise of his sudden appeareance caused her to jump and overturn the pot, barely jumping out of the way in time to avoid having scalding water all over the front of her robes.

"Fuck!" she yelled over his nonsensical screaming. "What the fuck, Amycus, what do you--"

She found her sentence rather unceremoniously severed off as her arm was pulled roughly towards him and the kitchen around them vanished and melted into a nondescript forest of some kind and--augh, this had better be really bloody good if he was going to make such a big scene and drag her away and for the love of Merlin--

"What is your problem?" Alecto demanded, yanking her arm away and spinning on her brother.

"Voice fucking down, Alecto!" He hissed at her as quietly and angrily as possibly, so as to stress how important it was. He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her to the ground as quietly as he could , behind the shrubs where he had last seen his intended victim.

He decided that it was probably as good a time as any to explain what had happened - the surrounding area was still deathly silent. "The Dark Lord sent me here to take care of some business...we duelled for a little while - they're hurt, really hurt, and I don't know where the fuck they are. I have to find them before they get away or I am dead, do you understand?" He held his wand out in front of his and shot several stunning spells in front of him, and two his left. Sweat glistened on his forehead, and his breath was shallow and hot.

Alecto had had her mouth open and ready to throw at him some critical bur of a comment, but when he began to finally explain the reason he had come to get her, understanding (and maybe a hint of fear for her very screwed brother) silenced whatever she had been ready to say. Her lips closed slowly and pursed tightly and without another question, she fished her own wand out of her robe pocket and set it out in front of her. She could tell him later how horribly stupid he was for letting his prey get away, for letting such an easy assignment as killing a single fucking person get so out of hand--later. Right at this moment, the protective big sister instinct was kicking in full-force and that was all she needed to have to take care of this royally fucked up situation.

"You're not going to find them here," she muttered quietly, leaning towards him to eliminate the need for anything louder. "I don't hear a thing... Fuck, I'll get up and look around--have my back from here." Alecto rose to her feet as silently as she could and pushed herself up against the back of a tree, peering around tentatively to discern whether she could see anyone around or not before stepping carefully out into the open. If the fucker was as wounded as Amycus said, she should have been able to hear his breathing if she was getting close--and he shouldn't be able to shoot any full power spells.

Amycus' slightly hysterical breathing calmed a little now that it seemed that at least one of them was in control. Thank goodness he had thought to get to Alecto - the thought of having to call on Regulus, or Grayson or Aland....it was a horrible thought. He was already embarrassed enough as it was. He'd panicked, lost his nerve, and now he had to get his big sis to clean up his mess. Amycus felt stupid.

Determined to prove himself, he pulled himself up onto his feet and slipped quickly around to the tree beside that of Alecto's, facing the opposite direction to her, wand out, hand no longer shaking as badly as it had been. Still silent. Maybe he had underestimated how badly he had hurt them - oh please, let them be unconscious, oh please....

She felt her eyes roll back in her head as she heard Amycus get up to join her, but didn't risk talking across their distance to tell him to bloody listen and her her handle it. And now she had lost her backup in case she ran into someone and was too close to get away, fucking brilliant, this kid and his fucking pride and if the Dark Lord didn't decide to kill him for this, Alecto sure as hell would make sure she did.

Reminding herself that there were more pressing matters at hand, she turned her attention back to the growth of trees ahead of her and refocused her mind before stepping out a bit further. Just a couple steps at a time, carefully, then stopping to listen, then a couple more, even more carefully, and stopping to listen, then a coupl--

"FUCKING HELL!" Alecto cried in shock and anger as a red flash of light filled her vision, blinding her eyes to the figure that she had heard jump out in front of her a second too late and filling the nerves all up and down her left side with pain. The force of the spell at the close proximity threw her back onto the hard ground, but her wand was aimed through the remaining spots of brilliance to where she heard her attacker come from and an avada kedavra out of her mouth before she hit. Her ears were ringing too loudly from the impact to tell if she'd hit or not, and she was scared of what could happen if she hadn't--this motherfucker was good, they needed him dead now.

Amycus had reacted quicker than even he had expected; perhaps the idea of his sister being hurt because of him spurred him angrily forward to meet the opponent that had just sprung out so suddenly in front of them. Obviously, they had mustered up enough strength to appear so suddenly and surprise them both. A flash of red - Alecto appeared hurt - Amycus' rage soared - and he lifted his wand up and shouted the killing curse at the same time as his sister, his jet of green light streaking after hers and plunging into the darkness.

There was a distinctive thud, and Amycus couldn't help but twist one corner of his mouth up into a half-smile. His wand and eyes still trained firmly on where he suspected their attacker now lay dead, he jogged forward. "What did he hit you with?" he asked her, not daring to glance at her as he continued forward and cast his wand light on a very still, and very dead person.

"No fucking idea," she muttered, pushing herself up off the ground despite that she much preferred to lay there. If Amycus were walking out in front of her, it was a good guess that they had hit him, but after that last trick, she wouldn't put it past him to be laying another trap. Being ready was necessary, just in case.

Alecto's wand went out in front of her again as she made her way towards Amycus and her other hand went down to her side to feel the wound. From groping, it felt like a slash, thankfully not quite as long or deep as it felt in terms of pain--it was like it had done just little more than brush her, probably due to their attacker jumping out while aiming. "Seems like diffindo, but I didn't hear the incantation."

She stopped beside her brother, who was standing over the man's--she hadn't been completely certain before--body and nudged him with the toe of her shoe. Her eyes drifted up his form until landing on his face. Eyes wide open in shock, but dull and lifeless... no matter how good you were, you couldn't fake that look. "Good."

Amycus cleared his throat awkwardly and muttered,"Thanks, Alecto. I owe you - ...many." He cleared his throat awkwardly again, and then raised his wand so that it pointed at the sky. There was a small, odd smile that played on his lips for a moment, and he took the time to explain to her,"I'll never get sick of this feeling....MORSMODRE!" A huge, glowing, green skull with a snake curling inside the mouth shot from Amycus' wand and his arm vibrated for a moment, before he lowered it, and admired his work in the sky.

Apparently snapping out of it, Amycus became serious again. "Come on, we have to get out of here," and Disapparated with a cracking sound, expecting her to follow his lead.

That she did, the crack so close behind Amycus' that the two almost seemed to be a single sound. Alecto may have been new to this business of being a Death Eater, but she wasn't stupid enough not know what happened to the idiots that stayed around to see what happened after they cast up the sign.

Half a second later she appeared back in the confines of her own kitchen, and she let herself slump back against the nearest wall, peeling off the now both dirty and bloody robes and taking a deep breath of relief that they were out of that predicament. Now came back the anger at him for letting himself get into this, for being so bloody stupid--

"You--" she spoke softly but threateningly, lifting open her eyes to watch her brother on the other side of the room "--are fucking lucky that I don't want to spend the energy necessary to drain your blood right now."

Amycus let Alecto's words wash over him, and he shut his eyes, pulling out a kitchen chair and kind of falling onto it, putting his head in his hands. Alecto had saved his backside - he didn't even want to think about what could have happened if that man had gotten away...Amycus reached for the hem of his robes and pulled them up over his head, leaving them for the time being on the kitchen floor. The slash that ran across his arm had cut not only through his robes but his crisp white shirt as well, which had now changed from the colour of white to red and white blotches, especially in the sleeve. He gazed at his wound and winced, it burned and stung, and Amycus knew he wasn't good at healing charms. And there was no way he could go to St Mungos - nor Alecto, for that matter. He unbuttoned his shirt and slid it off his arms, wrapping it up and around his arm to stem the flow of blood until he worked out what to do.

"I'm sorry, Alecto, I really am...I just panicked and...you haven't seen the Dark Lord when he's angry, yet. You don't understand how..." Amycus shivered slightly, and gave a nervous cough.

"No, but I've heard stories, so you don't have to talk like I'm ignorant," she cut back, a little snippy but she didn't really care. "If I didn't understand, do you honestly think I would have put my ass on the line?" Alecto knew that she would have and more if it was for Amycus--but that was an unspoken understanding, and completely opposite of the point of this conversation. She took a few more deep breaths and watched her brother reveal his own wound from across the small space, then stood up gingerly and walked to the double-cupboards over the stove.

Reaching up and wincing lightly at the way the action irritated her wound, Alecto grabbed a corked bottle of transparent yellow-green fluid and shut them again. She walked over and sat down on the chair opposite Amycus and uncorked the top, then undid the work he had just done with his shirt. "Come on, this'll heal it better than some bloodied rag will."

Amycus sighed and closed his eyes as Alecto worked on repairing his arm. No, he should not think to be so ignorant in assuming Alecto did not understand...of course she did - she was a Carrow, a Death Eater, but above all, his sister. Of course, she would understand him, and the predicaments he found himself in.

He winced a little as his arm gave in to a different, slightly tingly sensation, but didn't open his eyes yet. He felt an overwhelming rush of fatigue, the desire to curl up in a bed and never surface again.

Alecto finished pouring the liquid on his arm (it was convenient to own an apothecary, you always had the stock of these things you needed) and then leaned over to open a drawer, from which she retrieved a package of bandages to wrap tightly around the disinfected wound. She went to work on her own after he was done, lifting her shirt over her head to finally see the damage done. As she had been able to discern before, it wasn't as long and deep as it felt like, but it still stretched from her hip to the curve of her waist. The dark stain it had made on her shirt was going to be a pain in the ass to get out, she could see right now--the bastard deserved to have been killed, if only for that.

"I've got a couple t-shirts back in my room if you want something to wear home."

"Home?" Amycus asked, with a tone of bewilderment in his voice, as if he had not realised that he lived somewhere else. His second thought was that Alecto shouldn't be alone after what had just happened - that he shouldn't be alone. He had just narrowly escaped a potentially horrific situation and he still had the shakes. Just the thought of what the Dark Lord would do to him if he had failed...Amycus had not failed him yet, and he did not plan to. He was faithful, much more faithful and loyal and keen than any of the others. He could be trusted. His support would never waver.

"N-No. I think I should stay here tonight. You shouldn't be on your own. It's been a bit of an interesting evening. No, I think I should stay," Amycus muttered tentatively.

Alecto shrugged noncommittally as she got up to put the items on the table away, turning away from him so as to hide the smirk that had, against the mood, just broken out onto her lips. "Whatever you want," she said, sounding as indifferent as possible. "I just figured it would be first in your mind to keep your dear wife happy; I do hear those house elves can be horrible tattletales--that, and as I remember, you're horrible with staying the night with me."

She added the last part, amazingly enough (to herself), without the bitterness she still felt over the particular incident of which she was thinking. It was strong enough a statement without it, either way, enough so that she didn't feel the need to be indignant over his thinking she needed someone to stay with her (that was more his problem than hers anyway, she thought).

Amycus' eyebrows knitted together as he frowned deeply and he looked for a moment as if he was struggling with what to say, or how to phrase it. With an angry sounding sigh, he merely shrugged at her back. There was no point in arguing with her tonight, not when he owed her a lot for saving his backside, and not when all he wanted to do was to go to bed and forget that this evening ever happened.

"She's not my wife," Was the only retort Amycus offered, and it didn't even sound as though he was angry about Alecto referring to her as that. Hesitating, Amycus adding softly,"Yet." He let the impending silence lapse and stared down at the table.

"Same fucking difference," she answered just as quietly, the smirk long gone from her face. Merlin, she hated that woman--that girl, she was nothing more than a stupid little girl... It wasn't even all jealousy anymore, it was a deep-rooted belief that Vivica Avery was not good enough for her brother, and that there was no way that she could, for the rest of his life, make him happy. Honestly, she didn't see even an inkling of a hint that she made him happy now; unless you counted sexually, she supposed, but that was certainly not enough to base a marriage off of, much less a relationship.

Alecto turned to walk out of the room, anger over this whole frustratingly idiotic situation with her brother renewed as it was each time the thought of Avery crossed her mind, and she spoke behind her as she went. "While she's still 'not yet' your wife, you can sleep in the other room, on the couch."

Amycus took the bait, hook line and sinker, and stood up, drawing himself to his full height and saying coldly,"And what? If she was never to be my wife, where would I sleep then? Your bed?" He wore an expression that was entirely expressionless, apart from a distinct crinkle in the corners of his eyes that gave away the fact that he was trying not to get angry.

Alecto stopped at the sound of his voice, listening carefully to the fury at her that he was barely containing, she assumed for the reason that he was still in gratitude to her for the events of that night. At least that much stopped it from being a full-on wand fight, like they had been prone to have before.

She glanced over her shoulder, her expression cool and calm, completely different from the anger that was roiling inside. "Yes," she answered simply, plainly, and maybe a touch sadly, before breaking stares and walking away again.

He did not appear to be surprised, or taken aback by her answer. Instead, he merely frowned and cursed under his breath, kicking the table leg hard, which he instantly regretted when his big toe was filled with pain. Alecto really did not make his life any easier, sometimes. Yet...he knew he would never walk away from her. Some bonds cannot be broken.