Sephora Forrest
Vampire
Dhampir
Enjoys a bite to eat from time to time...
Posts: 145
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Post by Sephora Forrest on Sept 5, 2009 11:48:02 GMT 1
Sephora slipped quietly from the bathroom of the Leaky Cauldron, licking her lips as she did so. There was nothing like the feeling of a full stomach, and since she had started working at Scores, free time for decent meals was a lot harder to come by with sleeping thrown in. She was so stressed and tired from glaring at people for hours on end.
She had recently acquired a habit of feeding on people and then stashing them in toilet cubicles, locking them and then escaping over the top. It meant awkward questions could be avoided when she was staying in the general area, and they could get out and go on their way when they woke up. Not being able to gorge on people made feeding more of a chore too to find suitable meals, but at least it kept her on her toes and out of trouble.
She went to sit back at her table and ordered another drink that she never intended to use. She simply wanted to sit there and ponder what she was going to do for the rest of her day off. Already she was beginning to wonder why she was still sticking around here. But she had to admit to herself that her life was actually this boring even when she wasn’t staying in one place. But at least she didn’t have to turn up to work and glare at people and wait for slow bartenders for hours on end.
The only reason she was still here was Silas, and Silas’s blood to be more exact. Despite the fact that she knew that even in small amounts it would be very potent and in large amounts was actually dangerous to her health, she couldn’t stop craving it. Unfortunately, Silas had avoided her since their first encounter so she hadn’t had any temptation of any kind. And there hadn’t been any non-alcoholics who had walked past her that had smelt even half as good as he did. It was actually Silas’s fault that her meals tasted so bland at the moment, she decided. That was her new principle: when in doubt; blame Si. Actually, when she wasn't doubting anything she often found herself blaming Silas at the moment. Blame Si, Period.
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Post by Silas Rosier on Sept 5, 2009 14:53:18 GMT 1
Predictably, Sephora wasn’t at her room in the Three Broomsticks. If Silas had of actually found her there he would have been more than a little surprised. Going back to where everyone knew you lived when you were potentially in this kind of trouble? Yeah, that kind of supidity was reserved only for those dropped multiple times on the head as a child. None the less, it would have been negligent not to look.
The trouble was, that meant Miss Sephora Forrest could be just about anywhere in the British Isles by now, no thanks to the ease of magical transport. His one and only lead was that at some point today she may have been in Leicester Square. That meant it was time to go back to London and start there. Good God hunting people down was a pain.
Silas’s eagle owl gave him her usual glare and bared her beak irritably when he poked her none too kindly in the side with his wand. Tracking charm in place, she was given her instruction to find the half vampire and quickly released. He didn’t even need to wait for her to fly out of sight before he Apparated off to his next location: after all, she was flying in a very telling direction.
Diagon Alley.
A second later he was stepping out one of the side alleys of London, head bowed a little against the unforeseen pouring rain. None of the muggles even noticed as he half jogged past and disappeared into a building that none of them could see.
The rain was pattering audibly against the grimy windows when Silas made his way through the door, but at least the place was dry. Ergh. The smell of tobacco was thick in the air of the somewhat dingy pub, but he ignored it and strode through hurriedly on towards the entrance to Diagon Alley. For once he was a little too preoccupied to stop and buy a drink, although as he walked he was on the lookout for anyone that looked even vaguely like— Hang on. He’d just spotted long black hair and an arse that looked familiar. Silas stopped, and as girl looked off absently to the side, he was left with absolutely no doubt who it was.
Bingo.
Silas immediately changed course, walking briskly in her direction and taking no pains to mask his approach. Naturally Sephora quickly spotted him and he could swear for a second it looked like she was contemplating doing a runner. Even more tellingly, as she turned slightly to face him he noticed a small bloodstain smeared on her front. A little red handed, much?
“Okay, you and I need to talk,” he growled, and without warning he seized her upper arm before they were both sucked into the crushing blackness that accompanied Apparation.
When they reappeared the rain was gone, and some leftover snow was packed between the cobblestones of the back alley where they had ended up. The space was narrow, sandwiched between two stone buildings but not dark enough that Silas couldn’t see what he was doing thanks to the eerie light of an overhead window.
Before Sephora had a chance to fully recover from the unexpected sensation of teleporting and try and rip his lungs out for it (because, really, it seemed like a Sephora thing to do), Silas had set up a quick shield charm between them as a security measure, although it was unlikely she’d notice it unless she tried to have a go at him.
“Where the fuck’ve you been tonight?” he barked with a scowl, his temper sounding shorter than usual as he gestured at the blood mark on her clothing. “Whose is that, and answer quick.”
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Sephora Forrest
Vampire
Dhampir
Enjoys a bite to eat from time to time...
Posts: 145
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Post by Sephora Forrest on Sept 5, 2009 15:25:40 GMT 1
Speak of the devil himself. Sephora looked up warily at the sound of fast approaching footsteps to find herself staring straight at Silas Rosier. And by the expression on his face he was none too happy.
A million scenarios ran through her head and she considered legging it. She would easily be able to out run him. But her small window of time was now gone to escape as he strode right up to her. She was unsure whether she should cause a scene or not. Hell, she wasn’t even sure whether Silas was angry at her or just angry in general. She had done nothing wrong. So running would make any problem he had that much worse.
“Okay, you and I need to talk,” said Silas threateningly, and Sephora was still at this stage unsure whether he was just pissed at someone else or at her specifically. Although she was beginning to lean towards the her side of the spectrum.
Unexpectedly he grabbed her arm tightly and she barely had a chance to involuntarily curl her lip in warning before that all too familiar feeling of unrelenting pressure closed in on her and she was sucked into darkness.
She couldn’t break free, she couldn’t scream for help, she certainly couldn’t cause any of the numerous violent acts that were running through her head or the swear words accompanying them. All that existed was blackness and Silas’s annoyingly tight grip around her upper arm. Her frustration and anxiety levels were already rising through the roof, and by the time the dark space that was Apparition had passed she was beyond furious.
Immediately she ripped her arm free of his grasp and sprang back; putting a decent distance between herself and him. Her temper had never been a sure thing, but since she had begun to change into a vampire it was more unstable than an egg balanced atop a straw. The very slightest and strangest things could tip it, but certain things were worse than others. What Silas had just done was way up there on the list of ‘Do Not Do This Unless You’re Stupid’ things.
She sneered menacingly at him, her upper lip curling in the warning that he would never have been able to see back at the Leaky Cauldron. Being taken by surprise wasn’t something she took at all kindly to, and neither was being taken unwillingly by force. But she was wary of doing anything brash; he was armed with his wand and she vividly remembered her last encounter with that little twig of pain. Not an experience she wanted to repeat.
“Where I’ve been and what I’ve been doing are none of your business,” retorted Sephora with just as much malice as he had mustered up. She glanced swiftly down at her grey top to find a small splattering of blood drops staining it. Damn. And she’d thought that she had done such a good job of being neat tonight. Self consciously, she pulled her black trench coat tighter around her to cover the stain, and returned Silas’s gaze defiantly. “Why do you want to know anyway? What’s your problem?”
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Post by Silas Rosier on Sept 6, 2009 10:22:09 GMT 1
Seph was being difficult. Just a regular day for her then, it seemed. She’d already given some of the other waitresses the shits for being unfriendly, and inevitably Silas had been the one to hear about it.
None the less, if she wanted to continue acting PMSed, fine, but that just meant she was going to learn the hard way as to when it was appropriate to use manners. Now was definitely the time to play nice unless she wanted to tempt fate to discover if her intestines looked prettier if strewn up and down a wall. If she couldn't be intimidated into giving him a straight answer there was more than one means of extracting one, and in Silas’s arsenal, few were pleasant.
“Why do you want to know anyway? What’s your problem?” Seph demanded, and Silas glared at her before responding rather venomously.
“My ‘problem’ is that I want to know why the fuck there was an unconscious girl in the staff hallway this evening with two bite marks in her throat,” he said hostilely.
“Help me out here:” he continued, tilting his head in mock-puzzlement, voice now dripping with sarcasm. “E}Who happens to be the only vampire capable of accessing the building? Oh, that’s right!” he exclaimed, keeping his wand half raised and trained on her. “That would be you. So, again shall we? Where the fuck’ve you been, and who does that belong to? Last chance,” he threatened.
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Sephora Forrest
Vampire
Dhampir
Enjoys a bite to eat from time to time...
Posts: 145
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Post by Sephora Forrest on Sept 6, 2009 11:22:45 GMT 1
Silas’s particularly furious reply made her stop and rethink her strategy for a second. Acting pissed off about being dragged half way across the country without her permission was not going to help what suddenly struck her as a rather serious situation. Ok, she had no idea where she was, but wherever it was it was just as dingy as the Leaky Cauldron, minus the rain.
Her understanding was that she was the only vampire… thing, which could get into Scores. It was the reason she put up with working there - for protection. The thought of another vampire - a full one too - being able to get in was alarming to her heath, to say the very least. What if that vampire had been looking for her in that hallway? Because one thing was for certain; something was very wrong with Silas’s information here. She hadn’t been near Scores since the previous evening.
“This,” she said in a more reasonable voice while gesturing to where the blood stain had been covered by her coat, “Belonged to my dinner, who is currently stashed in a toilet cubicle back at the Three Broomsticks. He’ll probably be waking up and leaving soon. That’s what I’ve been doing all evening.”
A lid clanged off a trash can near by and some disgruntled coos from the pigeons on the rafters made Sephora jump back even further into the shadows and drop into a crouching position. She had refused to admit that she was extremely concerned; which translated to she was afraid, about this sudden piece of news. Her illusion of safety had just been shattered, and here she was out in the middle of nowhere with only Silas for company. Despite his magical twig, she doubted very much that he could take a full vampire. After all, it had hardly been difficult for her to get the jump on him. Should a full vampire turn up now they were both likely to be toast.
“I haven’t been any where near Scores all day,” she finished, her eyes continuing to dart around nervously, surveying the darker corners of the alleyway, “What makes you so certain that a vampire wouldn’t have found another way into Scores? Surely it can’t be that difficult?”
In the corner of her eyes, Sephora was sure she saw a shadow move. Everything have gone eerily quiet, and as if she wasn't twitchy enough already, a barn owl landed on the rafters causing all the pidgeons to scatter making horrible screeching noises as they went. But through it all she could have sworn she heard the muffled sound of approaching footsteps. A breath of wind blew down the alleyway and passed Sephora as if someone was breathing down her throat. This was the final straw, and she bolted in the opposite direction. Si would just have to fend for himself if there was a vampire right behind her.
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Post by Silas Rosier on Sept 9, 2009 10:14:47 GMT 1
Sephora’s responses were not what Silas wanted to hear. If she was telling the truth it meant that he’d be leaving now with even less of an idea of who was responsible than when he’d started. Seph’s innocence was not an option he wanted to consider unless he had no other choice, because the only other explanation was that there was a new vampire about with motives unknown. If it was a new vampire Silas doubted they’d be hunting at Scores by accident, especially not after all that had happened. Not good.
Seph was the only safe lead he had left, and with every reason on earth to lie about where she’d been. She was jumpy, twitchy, and glancing at all the possible exits. Not exactly the behaviour found in people who were being paragon of truth. Her story was believable enough on the surface, but if their places had of been swapped, he would be lying shamelessly through his teeth too. She was guilty. She had to be.
The refusal to look him in the eye was the most irritating factor: it made judging her honesty by magical means impossible. He wasn’t even sure if Legilimancy worked on vampires but now seemed as good a time as any to try. If she was lying, fine, he could extract the truth from her the hard way. But for now it looked like there was no reason they couldn’t be―
Sephora suddenly took off running.
― ... civil.
Fuck.
Silas gave an angry shout, and in the split second it took him to disable the shield charm, Sephora had almost vanished. His wand rounded on the woman’s fleeing form, and as he roared “Incarcerous!” a crack like a gunshot resounded around the alley. A series of silver ropes shot from the end of the wand and tied themselves around Sephora’s ankles, sending her crashing at high speed to the ground.
They hadn’t even finished snaking their way up Sephora’s body when Silas made movement to drag her back towards him. The loose ends of the ropes picked themselves up and proceeded violently yanking the girl quickly back towards him across the cold, rough cobblestone with no particular care as to the damage that would likely cause.
Once she’d been dragged back to lie at his feet, the look he gave her wasn't exactly heartening. “What’s the hurry? We’re just getting started,” he growled maliciously.
With that little stunt Sephora may as well have proven her guilt in one go. One thing was for sure, innocent people didn’t run. Silas really hated being wrong, so proving herself as untrustworthy when he had decided to give her a chance before was just about the worst thing she could have done.
Once she was fully bound, Silas motioned with his wand as though casting her aside and Sephora was picked up and slammed bodily against the brick wall. Without warning she was then hoisted against it as though by an invisible hook to draw her to Silas’s eye-level.
“Tell me, Sephora, what the fuck did you think you were going to achieve by this?” Silas asked with a calmness that seemed forced as he sauntered a few steps closer, inclining his head a little to try and catch her eye again. The mindreading charm was cast silently, but it was useless if Sephora didn’t fucking look at him. “I don’t know if you felt like you had something to prove or if you’re just that stupid, but did you really think I wouldn’t notice?” He seized her jaw, forcing her head up to face him. “Why’d you do it?”
Sorry for the time taken and the fail. If you want to add lots more paaaain, make her screw her eyes shut or something and the real fun can begin.
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Sephora Forrest
Vampire
Dhampir
Enjoys a bite to eat from time to time...
Posts: 145
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Post by Sephora Forrest on Sept 10, 2009 8:58:13 GMT 1
She was almost at the end of the alleyway, and so far there were no sounds of pursuit, which was good. Silas shouted behind her but she didn’t stop to check what was happening. Some would call her behaviour selfish but Sephora of course valued her own life above everyone else’s. That couldn’t be considered selfish could it? It was intelligent and sensible, in her mind.
All of a sudden there was a pressure on her ankles and she barely had time to intake breath before she crashed to the ground. Sephora winced in pain from the speed of her fall and tried to struggle out of whatever had her by the ankles. She tried to run around to struggle out of whatever held her, but she couldn’t struggle against whatever strong force was holding her in place. And because of the way she had landed, she certainly couldn’t turn her head to see what it was either.
As her captor began to drag her back, her first reaction was panic. And then fear. She screamed as loudly as she could in the hope of attracting attention, but knowing none would come. Silas was probably already dead. And she was next.
Finally she was turned over to face the person responsible and she saw… Silas? Looking around fearfully, her eyes still wide, she could see no one else in the alley way. And then it all fell into place. Silas had dragged her back.
Her brain whirred as she quickly slotted pieces of information into place. She had probably overreacted about the shadow thing, but she still didn’t quite understand why Silas had dragged her back here. Especially in such a painful manner. Sure, she had been planning on abandoning him and saving herself, but he didn’t know that. It all made no…
Her thoughts were stopped in their tracks as she was picked up by some unknown force and slammed against the brick wall. Her breath was knocked from her chest, and the impact would most definitely leave a bruise, if not a few broken ribs considering the feeling in her side. Breathing was suddenly one hell of a lot more difficult, and she would have snarled in pain if it didn’t hurt more when she did.
That force hoisted her up in the air again, and fearing another slamming session, she braced herself as best she could being tied up in silver ropes. But the impact never came and she found herself at Silas’s eye level. She refused to look at him, focussing her eyes off in the other direction to draw her attention away from the pain in her chest.
Silas’s voice dripped venom despite sounding calm; well, as much as any person who was incensed could. This girl who had been bitten tonight must mean an awful lot to him. Which was touching… but so not her problem. She hadn’t done anything wrong here! Why was she being punished?
“Didn’t you just listen to a word I just said?” she demanded, testing the ropes again for weaknesses, which only earned her another stab of pain, “I haven’t been anywhere near Scores! Some other vampire must have bitten your girlfriend! Why are you beating me up? I’ve done nothing wrong! I’m innocent God damn it!” And receiving someone else’s punishment. If Silas didn’t kill the culprit first, she was going to rip them to shreds. And then perhaps come back for second with Silas. This was incredibly unfair and painful for no reason whatsoever!
The longer the bonds held her, the more painful breathing became. If she didn’t have a broken rib before she was sure she did now. Black dots began to swim infront of her eyes and she closed them to try and shut out the pain. She didn’t need to see while being tortured and held in mid air ayway. It didn’t look as though she was going anywhere soon. Her chest seemed to protest at this and she hissed in breath, to receive even more pain. Talking made it worse, but it might get her down sooner so that she could assess the damage.
“Let me down! For God’s sake let me down!” There was real anger in her words now and a little of the effort from yelling showed. Why had he still not let her down? Didn’t he believe her or something? This was one of the few times where she was actually telling the truth, and she was being called a liar. This was unbelievable! Fucking unbelievable.
Paaaaain *is not sadistic*
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Post by Silas Rosier on Sept 11, 2009 10:49:10 GMT 1
His girlfriend? “She’s not my―” Silas cut himself off and seemed to reconsider. Well, someone running around the country trying to catch the fiend that injured their lover certainly sounded a hell of a lot better than someone just taking a pre-emptive strike to save their own arse. Fine, they could go with ‘girlfriend’.
Anyway, back to the point.
He ignored Sephora’s indignant squalling about her supposed innocence. Why the fuck she was still lying he wasn’t exactly sure but Silas was starting to run out of patience for it. She had access to the building, there was blood on her clothing, and to top it off she’d run like a bitch when he’d confronted her. It wasn’t inconceivable that she’d had managed to learn about Legilimancy either, so her desperation to not look him in the eye was even more telling. If that meant she was afraid about retribution, yes, she had very good reason to be afraid.
Silas let go of her jaw, although it was a small comfort considering his next move was to jab Sephora brutally in the side with his wand, practically digging the point underneath her ribcage. From the end burst a cutting pain which felt like she might as well have been stabbed. It laced its way like a fire through the internal organs near where the wand was pressed, as though they were being shredded by a grinder, cutting, burning, spreading, intensifying. This wasn’t crucio, this was something else, which Sephora was going to feel for a while.
One he felt his point was made, Silas pulled the wand away. Why he was still keeping her alive he wasn’t sure, but he figured he’d at least earned the right to hear the confession forced from her lips before he disposed of her. She’d just had to go fuck up such an otherwise nice day, hadn’t she?
The ropes suddenly released most of Seph’s body, but not to get her go. They wrapped themselves around her wrists, keeping her hoisted and stretched by her arms like a twisted version of a crucifix while the ropes around her legs kept her anchored to the wall so she couldn’t kick or lash out. An invisible force started spreading her fingers apart, keeping the back of her hands pressed against the wall, palms outward. Silas stepped idly over to her right hand, glancing at all her fingers before finally resting the tip of his wand against the base of the smallest one. “Admit it for me, Seph, or I’ll start removing these,” he threatened with a nonchalantly.
Don't worry, apparently they grow back.
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Sephora Forrest
Vampire
Dhampir
Enjoys a bite to eat from time to time...
Posts: 145
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Post by Sephora Forrest on Sept 12, 2009 13:34:35 GMT 1
Silas let her go, but the relatively mild pain that had come from him twisting her jaw was nothing compared to the sensation that followed him jabbing his wand into her ribcage. Sticking a twig in someone’s ribs was painful enough, but paired with the fact that she wasn’t sure whether she had broken ribs or not, it was excruciating. And then it got worse.
It was liked being burned from the inside out; jagged knives ripping at her flesh and deliberately digging in. It was a miracle that Sephora managed to stay conscious through the amount of pain. Surely she would die of blood loss. But she took a glimpse down at herself to find not a single cut on her body that was being inflicted by the wand anyway. So far she had been biting her tongue, but once she cut that as well with her over sharp teeth there was nothing stopping her from letting out a blood-curdling scream.
Just as Sephora was absolutely sure she was about to pass out, Silas removed his little twig of pain and stepped back. She was gasping for breath as the pain began to die away, disappointed that she couldn’t have fainted to avoid any more pain like that. Her stomach dropped out beneath as the ropes disappeared from around her torso, and she made to kick out in her moment of freedom only to find her legs and wrists bound still. At least she could breathe more easily now.
Anger and fury boiled up inside her when Silas continued to sneer at her. Was he thicker than two short planks? It felt like her whole insides were on fire again, only this was pure white hot rage. What she wouldn’t give to be a full vampire at this moment. Or to be a witch so she could blast him to kingdom come. And then hang his mangled bloodied corpse from some powerlines or something macabre of the sort. And then perhaps beat him with a stick for the fun of it.
“What the fuck do you want me to admit?” she spat, her fury clearly showing in her tone, “If I said that I was at Scores tonight and I bit your girlfriend because I was jealous that she's got you all to herself, would you seriously believe me? Would it make any difference to my fate in the long run? Do you just want me to say it to make your own twisted game justifiable?
“You’re sick, twisted and insane! Completely psychotic! Has anyone ever told you that before? I’m telling the truth; I know nothing about what happened at Scores this evening apart from what you have told me. I know it and so do you. But your cold black heart just likes to torture people doesn’t it? You enjoy it."
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Post by Silas Rosier on Sept 14, 2009 12:59:32 GMT 1
Heh, if Sephora didn’t look pissed before, she certainly did now. The glare that she fixed Silas when she turned to speak was furious, wordlessly communicating worlds of unbridled hatred, but that wasn’t what caused the sneer to quickly wipe itself so suddenly from his face.
The Legilimancy charm had activated in the split second their eyes met. He heard laughter and idle chatter start up around him. He was no longer in the alley, but gazing across the Leaky Cauldron. Sephora was there, before him, seated comfortably at one of the tables, but at the same time he was more than aware that the real Sephora was tied up in front of him in Hogsmeade. The second Sephora at the table was eyeing a stranger as he got up to go to the bathroom, and silently, she stood up and followed.
The scene changed. They were in a toilet cubicle and the man gave a strangled cry as Sephora roughly exposed his neck and sank her teeth into his flesh. His calls were subdued. His breathing slowed. Struggles faltered. Eyes fluttered closed.
It changed again, and Sephora vaulted over the top of one of the cubicles nonchalantly, pausing only to stop in front of the mirror for a moment to fix her hair and wipe a smudge of blood off the side of her lips before she let herself back through the door into the pub calmly as could be. Before the door had a chance to swing shut once more, Silas caught a glance at the clock on the opposite wall, the time reading approximately the same as when he’d found one Jacaranda Mulciber unconscious in the staff hallway.
And in the next moment, they were back in the alleyway as though not a second had passed.
Damn it.
Sephora was screaming, ranting, yelling, and it was extremely lucky for her that Silas was only half listening, instead too busy wrapping his head around this new information. He looked away, wand dropping back to his side, brow furrowed and trying to block out Sephora’s shrieks. So, what? She actually was innocent? Fuck fuck fuckity fuck fuck. Goddamnit. The implications here were just... argh. Did this stupid vampire that was responsible have any idea how much of Silas’s time this was going to waste?
“You’re sick, twisted and insane! Completely psychotic! Has anyone ever told you that before?” Sephora snapped, and her choice of words forcibly yanked Silas’s attention back onto what she was saying and he glared at her angrily. Of course he’d head that accusation before. But the fact it kept being flung at him again and again was really starting to grate on his nerves. He’d never harboured the delusion that he thought like everyone else, but the idea that he was ‘insane’ was laughable. Fucking idiots.
“Enough,” he barked vehemently, and before the woman could come up with some other choice insults, Silas flicked his wand and the wind was knocked out of her as though a battering-ram had just slammed into her lower sternum. “Or else I’m going to enjoy it more the longer you keep talking.”
This was wasting his time. He needed to get out of here. Get back home. Find out what the fuck to do with Jac. Get some leads. He looked up to survey Sephora again, wondering what the hell to do with her. There was always killing her, but disposal was more effort than she was currently worth at the moment. He gave an exasperated sort of sigh and at his command the ropes went slack and vanished, dropping Sephora, still coughing and spluttering, rather unceremoniously onto the ground.
“Goodnight, Sephora,” he grumbled. He aimed his wand at her forehead, and in the single word “Obliviate” all the memories of the altercation vanished, leaving Sephora without the faintest clue of how she might have ended up travelling in a heartbeat from the comfortable warmth of the Leaky Cauldron to lying in pain in the middle of a freezing alley.
Before her eyes had even unglazed, Silas had Disapparated into thin air.
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