Minerva and Kat looked down at the bowl of shimmering liquid as morning sunlight shone through the narrow window in the bathroom. Minerva opened her mouth, just about to announce that it was time to pick which memory to start with when the door to the bedroom thumped, rumbled, then a muffled voice let out a curse. Magic spilled into the air as Minerva ran to the bathroom, scrabbling to get her robes on, while Katarina instead yanked one of the narrow brass tubes that held the towels off the floor out of its metal grips.
The door burst open and Virignia Blyhte III came stumbling into the room. She was dressed in [blank] and was looking about with a bleary, panicky look. "Get your mitts off Minnie, you-" she said, glaring at the bed and the rumpled, empty sheets.
"Gina!" Minerva exclaimed.
"Minerva!" Gina said, stepping into the room. Behind Minerva, Kat grinned and set her makeshift weapon back onto the towel rack. She started to take a robe and slip it on, while Gina grabbed onto Minerva's robes and shook her slightly. "What were you
thinking
letting that mad German drag you off in the middle of the night - and me and Harry had no idea where you'd got too, and Selene? Oh! She was no help at all! And-"
She stopped, seeing Kat step around behind Minerva's back, wearing robes and what Minerva was quite sure might be the smuggest expression this side of the Channel.
"Good lord!" Gina exclaimed.
"
Guten Morgen,"
Kat said. "
Frauline
."
"Don't you frow-leen me!" Gina hissed. "What have you done to Minerva! She looks..." She narrowed her eyes. "...good lord, you look as if you're glowing. Is dyking out really that good?" She sounded taken aback.
"Gina...what are you doing here?" Minerva asked, not sure if she should laugh, cry, or dissolve into a puddle of sheerest mortification. "And you...can't just
ask
someone that."
"Well, you're already beyond the pale enough as it is, aren't you?" Gina seemed a mite put off by the idea that her prurient curiosity might be stymied by anything so mundane as good taste and politeness.
Kat harrumphed. "Blythe," she said, seriously.
Gina flipped her hand dismissively.
"I'm fine!" Minerva said, hurriedly. "Kat did not...abscond with me. I left with her under my free will." She glanced at Kat, hoping the answer to that wasn't
hopefully
.
"Yeah, and three sheets to the wind," Gina said, sniffing.
"I don't drink that much," Minerva said.
"She was
tipsy
," Kat added.
Gina narrowed her eyes. Then her eyes narrowed further still as she craned her head, then pushed past Minerva - who stepped aside with a yelp.
"Good god!" Gina's voice sounded less offended and more horrified now. She gestured to the bowl of glowing memories, turning back to face Minerva. "Minerva! I...I'd say 'did you not remember what I said last night' but now I'm beginning to think that might actually be the case! You idiot! You...you...you...you Sleeper idiot!" She trembled with anger - or maybe, it was just anger masking fear, fear that Minerva saw haunting in her eyes. "Do you know how
dangerous
this is?"
Minerva blushed. Kat frowned. "It is just being a fae charm, isn't it?" she said, shrugging one shoulder.
"Oh, yes, sure, maybe the crazy Huns use Alotexis every other weekend for your refreshments, but in Britain, the spell is sanctioned! The Ministry can send you to prison - hell, back in the day, it was the sort of thing that gone one sent for Transportation!" Her eyes flicked to Kat and she frowned. "Or Extraction."
Kat growled softly. Minerva coughed. "W-Well, I read about it..." she said.
"Yes, you read about it in a technical manual," Gina said. "But...ugh. Sleepers." She rubbed her palms against her face. "Okay, Alotexis? You can't put the memories
back
." She gestured to the bowl. "They're going to be in this bowl. Forever. You will never remember whatever you lost. Ever. You have to, if you want, rewatch every single moment of it! And if you took out, say, a year? Two?"
"It was two weeks," Minerva said, her voice growing cold.
"Two weeks!" Gina put her palms over her face. "Ugh! You're not getting those back, Minerva! What if you had accidentally yanked a year? Ten? Your whole life! This blasted stuff is sanctioned for a
reason
."
Minerva's face felt hot. Her stomach felt cold, though. The first and immediate reaction she had was to deny that she had done anything wrong, to excuse herself. But she knew, looking back at the facts she knew, that she had been hideously irresponsible.
It's the apple again,
she thought. She had summoned apple on apple, thinking she could feed herself with magic. Instead, she had nearly starved herself to death. She had gone to hunt for magical reagents, and she had nearly been captured and strung up by a Faewarden. She made a broom, damn the consequences, and...genuinely, how lucky was she to have not been dropped from five miles up?
"Lay off her," Kat said.Her voice was low and growly and she put her hand on Minerva's shoulder, squeezing her.
"I will once she understands what she did was so bloody foolish," Gina said, huffing. "You could have died. At least, at least tell me you stayed near whatever memories you've relived..." She rubbed the bridge of her nose.
Minerva gulped. "Well..."
"You didn't," Gina whispered.
"I was curious!" Minerva exclaimed.
"Mundane society knows about the tale of the cat! And curiosity! And the killing thereof!?" Gina spluttered. "That isn't just a wizard story, right?"
"The cat did come back from satisfaction, though," Kat said, her voice holding a satisfied air. Then, concerned, she added. "Though, you weren't hurt by anything in there, yes?"
Minerva rubbed her shoulders with her hands and ducked her head forward. "No. But...something noticed me." She bit her lip. "I...do you know these dates?" She asked, pointing at the note that she had left for herself. Gina took the note up, frowning as she read it.
"No," she said. "But you did say you had three dates in mind - and each of them were moments you wanted to sneak around in. Because
someone
had to mention how Alotexis could be used for spying..." Gina huffed. "I am going to wring Selene's little neck."
"...I didn't want to forget anything," Minerva whispered, slowly. "I wanted to
learn
."
"Well, of course, have you met yourself?" Gina grumbled.
Minerva shook her head. "And here, I was worried I had slept with Harry Perry," she said, her voice edged with sarcasm. The golden liquid frothed, bubbled, writhed, and then the small shapes of Minerva, gasping and moaning softly as she leaned into the embrace of a tall, awkwardly skinny boy, rose from the bubbles. Her robes were half off and she was mewling quietly as Harry clearly kissed along her neck to-
Minerva sprang forward, placing her palms over the bowl, trying to cover it, though she did nothing to hide the sounds at all. Her cheeks burned and the mortification went from what she had thought was the high water mark of her life to some new, transcendental level.
"Stop!" She hissed at the golden liquid while Kat arched an eyebrow and Gina scoffed.
"Hey, I said I called first," she said.
"Well, Charlotte beat you to that!" Minerva snapped, unable to stop herself.
"That-" Gina scowled. "...wait, what date was that!" She grabbed onto Minerva, pushing her aside. Minerva yelped, her palms dripping with golden light as Gina held her wand above the Alotexis and wriggled it left and right, the tip glowing faintly as the bubbling froth glowed out a series of elegant, interlocking lines of script, which floated above the small Minerva's now exposed breasts. Minerva blushed furiously wondered if a subconscious desire to forget had been part of why her spell had yanked out two weeks, rather than just three specific days.
Gina swelled up like a blimp. "Minerva Schross-Sableknight, you-" she spun around. "That was the day after I tried to get him into bed!"
"Well, I-" Minerva stammered.
"It must not have worked," Kat said, blandly.
The bubbling froth started to lapse into stillness.
"Oh?" Gina asked as Minerva glared daggers at Kat.
Don't you dare,
she thought.