tear my world apart;; felicity/ilyana

[carleigh addison stryder]

Carleigh slammed her laptop shut. Her mind fluttered around in her head, thoughts colliding. She felt dizzy, light headed, incoherent, like even if she tried to formulate sentences she wouldn’t be able to. All she could do was sit there and let the memories flash before her eyes. Her big, blue eyes brimmed with tears that streaked down her cheeks. Carleigh wiped her eyes with the back of her hand, smearing her makeup on her face. Shit. She looked like a wreck. No one could see her like this. She was not weak, nor could she look it.

The blonde ran her fingers through her hair and stood up, walking over to her bathroom. Carleigh stood in front of the sink and splashed water on her makeup stained face. She stood there, letting the droplets collect and run across her pale skin, falling back into the sink. The darkened water funneled and disappeared down the drain. The girl looked into the mirror seeing her pathetic looking face with the makeup stained skin. She saw her parents features in her own reflection. How could they possibly be gone forever? They were supposed to be in hiding, how could they have been found? What were they hiding from in the first place? Carleigh clenched her fist and smashed it into her reflection. The questions didn’t cease to bubble and rise to the surface.

Blood was seeping out of her hand, but she could barely feel the pain, she was numb all over. Carleigh walked slowly over to her bed, the crimson liquid trailing behind her. Sitting down indian style, the girl stared down at the patterns on her sheets in silence. What was going to happen now? How was Felicity handling all of this? Had she been the one to find them? How the hell was she going to deal with this? Carleigh looked down at her minced hand and collecting puddle of blood on her dress.

[felicity leanne stryder]

When Felicity had gone to visit her parents, she hadn't expected any of the things that she had found. Typically, she ran by and visited for a bit, brought them what they needed and left. That afternoon, however, had been completely different. The house was ransacked, the alarms were tripped and her parents were dead. At first, she had been in utter shock, running on simply the reserves that she kept up in her. She had cleaned the house, not shedding a single tear and just taking care of it as if it were protocol for a mission. She rarely went on missions like such herself, but she had been in situations like this before and dealt with it accordingly. But this was different. This was her family. The people that had brought her up and the people that she had relied on through the first part of her life. And they were gone.

Once she had finished going through the house, looking for evidence and cleaning up things she set about dealing with the bodies. She kept her emotions out of it, handling it all with as much professionalism as she would have if it were anyone else. It wasn't easy, but it was necessary. Knowing that this wasn't something she could keep from Carleigh for very long, Felicity messaged the girl. That probably wasn't the best way to deal with it, but it was the easiest. She was still on rocky terms with Carleigh, so she didn't want to confront her about it in person just yet, but it was painfully obvious that she needed to. Carleigh wasn't like her yet. Where Felicity was completely capable of turning off any emotional feeling at all, Carleigh wasn't. She was still a kid and she needed someone there for her. As of then, Felicity was the only someone that she had.

Admittedly, she was stalling getting home. She didn't know what Carleigh was going to do and that scared her to the point where she honestly wasn't sure she wanted to go back home yet. She wanted her fiancee there, but that clearly wasn't going to happen anytime soon. When she had completely finished, Felicity let out one last sigh before she apparated back to the flat. Her first destination was Carleigh's room. There was no doubt that she would be needed there and Felicity, as the elder of the two, would have to be the one to take over and keep strong for the family. Pushing open the door, a frown of worry crossed her face when she saw the girl's hand. Crossing the room without asking, Felicity sat on the edge of the bed and pulled her wand out. Taking Carleigh's hand, she quickly worked a healing spell to fix the wound and then cleaned the blood away. "Hey, are you...are you doing okay?" she asked. A stupid, rather irrelevant question, but there wasn't much else to say in a time like that.

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[carleigh addison stryder]

Carleigh didn’t turn her music on in her room for the first time in what seemed to be forever. When the girl was home, the music was on. There were no guys in her room, she was home, and it was silent. There was definitely something wrong with this picture. Carls didn’t deal with things well. The only time she really reacts is if it alters her in some way. This little situation didn’t change anything physically, but it changed her mentally. She was still living with her sister, no parents around, in the flat, always knowing that if things went wrong she could run away to Verona to her parents. Now it was just her and Felicity, and the little fuck of a fiancée whom she hated.

The blonde sat on her bed staring blankly down past her bleeding hand to her sheets. What was he supposed to do now? She had no parents. They were both fucking murdered. Whoever killed them is going to wish they were never found because Carleigh was determined to hunt them down. She wanted revenge. A cracking sound echoed down the hallway and moments later the door to her bedroom was pushed open. The girl didn’t even flinch. Her blue eyes kept looking down. She sensed her sister, but all she could do was blink as she healed her wounds. The girl was like a rag doll. Someone could manipulate the crap out of her right now and she’d just sit there at take it.

Carleigh watched the blood fade out of her white bed sheets and finally looked up when Felicity spoke. To lie or tell the truth? “Yep. I’m totally fine,” the lies flew out of her mouth on instinct. What she really wanted to say was, ‘Do I look fucking fine?’ but she had no desire to speak at the moment. You usually had to tell Carls to shut the fuck up, but today was different. Everything was upside down, backwards for her. This wasn’t supposed to happen like this. The pain was overwhelming, causing her to numb. She couldn’t feel anything, nor did she really want to.

[felicity leanne stryder]

The destruction, Felicity had expected, but seeing Carleigh just sitting there wasn't something she had seen coming. Though they hadn't always had the easiest life, there hadn't been much that really had effected the two of them as much as this would. Before, they still had parents, even if they weren't around to help raise Carleigh, but now they didn't. There was nothing at all that they could fall back on if things got rough anymore, it was just them. For Felicity, it was okay. She was grown, she had no use for her parents anymore and she was able to shut out the emotions, but she knew it was different for Carleigh and Felicity was worried that she wouldn't be able to do a damn thing about it. She couldn't bring their parents back and she certainly wasn't all too fantastic at filling in for the two of them, as much as she tried.

Totally fine. Like hell she was fine. Carleigh never acted like this and it was more than obvious that she was hurting. It sucked more than anything for Felicity, since she rather felt responsible for it. She had been the one to find their parents and she had been the one to tell Carleigh about it. Being sympathetic wasn't always something that came easily for Felicity. While she was a very caring person, she showed it differently and situations like this weren't easy on her. Sighing a bit, her head dropped down as she bit at her lip. "Carleigh, I'm...really sorry you had to find out like that," Felicity said, not sure how to start talking about things or even if she could make the girl feel better in the least. She wanted to, but she didn't know what to do or to say that could help.

Reaching over, Felicity pulled Carleigh over towards her and wrapped her arms around the girl. It wasn't much in the way of comfort, but it was a lot more than the two of them were used to. "You know, I'll be here for you, kid. I won't be going anywhere," Felicity added, making a promise to both herself and to Carleigh. She had already been taking care of her younger sister for the majority of her life, but now it was even more important that she tried to really bond with the girl. Having a family was important and now that their parents were gone they had to stick together even more than before. "Anything you need, you let me know and I'll take care of it, alright?" Felicity requested. She wanted Carleigh to know that she would be there, no matter what. She just hoped Carleigh would be able to see that.

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[carleigh addison stryder]

“It’s better than not finding out at all,” Carleigh admitted, her voice was just above a whisper. If she hadn’t found out then she would have lived on like nothing had happened, but if she did escape to Verona and found out, let’s just say Italy would end up looking like Pompeii. The girl would have been more angry if her sister neglected to tell her about their parents’ deaths. In a way, she was relieved that Felicity hadn’t kept this from her because she did seem to do that a lot. “I would have preferred you come and tell me in person though. I had way too much time to think between when you told me and now.” Thinking was dangerous, hence, the sliced knuckles just minutes before.

Felicity pulled her little sister towards her, wrapping her arms around her. Carleigh merely let herself be manipulated like a ragdoll. She didn’t push her sister away from her like she normally would. There was no ‘ew, don’t fucking touch me’ this time, just silence. “You always were,” the blonde said, resting her head on her sister’s shoulder, tears once again swelling up in her deep, blue eyes. She was sincere about that statement, not sarcastic or snarky. “Mhmm,” she nodded, her head never leaving Felicity’s shoulder. That little gesture comforted the girl more than anything. She wasn’t alone or with some guy she barely knew, she was with her sister, the person who practically raised her and takes care of her.

Carleigh lifted her head and scooted back on the bed, away from Felicity. One single question was repeating itself in her head, stabbing her in the brain. “What happened? How?” she spoke, finally looking her sister in the eye for the first time since she’s been here. Carleigh wanted to know. Anything that would link her to the murderer would be helpful. She had already devised a plan in her head and didn’t plan on sharing it with anyone else. She needed to do this on her own, it had to be personal. Carleigh wanted the murderer to know that it was her and that they had killed her parents. No one would be able to slide by.

[felicity leanne stryder]

It was slightly comforting to know that Carleigh at least approved of the fact that she had told her about what happened. Of course, Felicity had realized that it would be in her best interest to tell her, though, she had to agree with Carleigh that she hadn't exactly handled it perfectly. Leaving the girl alone for any length of time after telling her about the death of her parents had been a mistake, obviously, but it wasn't like Felicity could be perfect. She was doing the best that she could to bring Carleigh up right and do whatever was possible to help her along, so that had to count for something, obviously. "Yeah, I...sorry. I had to deal with things and I was a tad frazzled, so, I wasn't using my best judgment, I suppose," Felicity replied with a light shrug. It wasn't much by the way of excuses and not entirely true either, but it worked.

Despite everything that was going on, Felicity had to admit that she was pretty damn touched by the fact that Carleigh wasn't pushing her away. It wasn't often that they had moments like this, especially not as of late, and Felicity was quite amazed that it was working out like it was. In fact, she was completely caught off guard by the fact that Carleigh was being so, well, vulnerable. It certainly wasn't something that she saw from Carleigh often, if at all, but it made Carleigh seem much more like a normal person. "Yeah, and I always will be," Felicity said, her voice becoming much more relaxed when she spoke. It was kind of nice to have some sort of closeness with Carleigh after having been so distant from her for so long, even if the circumstances that had brought them back together were less than idyllic.

When Carleigh moved back, asking the question of what had happened, Felicity wasn't even sure how to answer. From what she had gathered, the Marauders had finally found out where their parents had been hiding and had gone in and taken them out. Their parents, however, had fought back, causing quite the destruction of the home they had been living in. "Ah, all I know is that it was an attack. They found back, but I don't know the exact circumstances. The investigators are on scene now, though. That young one, Alexandria was there, along with a few others," Felicity answered. She wished that she knew more, but that wasn't her area of expertise. She was at least confident, however, that when the right people got there to figure things out and sort through the mess that they would know soon enough what, exactly, had happened there that day.

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[carleigh addison stryder]

“I-it’s okay, I guess,” Carleigh really wasn’t in the mood to get all worked up again. She wanted silence, calmness. The girl was a bit angry at her sister for that, but she was drained, physically and emotionally. She couldn’t possibly produce another tear. Her blue eyes stared blankly at the covers on her bed. The blood stains faded until they became invisible. She kind of understood what Felicity was talking about, or at least she was trying to understand.

Carleigh hesitated and then slowly wrapped her arms around her sister. She could have sat there for forever if the questions in her head weren’t threatening to explode. The girl didn’t want anything to change, but she felt that her life would be turned upside down by this event. Her parents weren’t involved in her life much, but they were still there if she needed anything, now they weren’t. “I really appreciate it.”

“Alexandria? From school?” Carleigh asked, a look of confusion crossed her face. The blonde was extremely confused. Whoever was there, whoever killed her parents should sleep with one eye open. They could count on the fact that they wouldn’t be alive for much longer or they would be questioned, picked apart for information, until they couldn’t speak anymore. Carleigh would be out there, hunting them down, tracking them until she could kill them. She would dedicate her life to finding her parents murderers.

[ilyana lethe stryder]

Although Ilyana technically lived with Felicity and Carleigh, she wasn't there nearly as often as she could have been. Most weekends when they were home, Ilyana was out traveling back home or whatever other plans struck her fancy. It wasn't that she didn't appreciate it, since she absolutely did, but it just wasn't home to her and she felt like she was intruding on their space or whatever. However, there were some weekends that she rather just wanted to sleep or maybe hit up one of Felicity's games that she went ahead and just stayed at the house. Not to mention, it helped appease the Ministry of Magic that the werewolf was being kept under control and all that. Ridiculous, in her opinion, but she dealt with it either way. There wasn't a whole lot she could do about it, after all.

That weekend was one of the times where she kind of just wanted to chill. It wasn't too long after the full moon and though she hated to admit it, that took a lot out of her. It was a tough transition and generally she took it pretty easy in the days following the event. Apparating back to the house, Ilyana pushed open the door to an eerily quiet room. It was weird for her, since she was used to Carleigh's music blaring or at least the sound of Felicity cleaning up something. However, it was silent. The only sound she could hear was the quiet tick of the old grandfather clock that Felicity kept in the living room and it was oddly unsettling. Even if she didn't entirely feel comfortable living there yet, the fact that something was off still gave her cause to worry slightly.

Walking back towards Felicity's room, Ilyana pushed the door open, frowning when she wasn't there. It was her day off, Ilyana thought, so it was weird that she wasn't in there taking a nap or working on something. She didn't hear Carleigh, but she felt that she may as well check to see if maybe the girl was taking a nap or something. Unlikely, but possible. Walking down the hallway, Ilyana paused outside Carleigh's door for a moment before barging in. Knocking just wasn't her style. A slightly confused look crossed her face when she saw both Carleigh and Felicity in the room, hugging each other and clearly quite upset. "Ah, is there...something goin' on, mate?" she asked, stopping to hover in the doorway. She quite felt as if she were interrupting something that she most likely shouldn't.

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[felicity leanne stryder]

Though she still felt rather terrible about the way things had gone down, Felicity at least felt that she wasn't completely screwing things up with Carleigh and that perhaps this had been good for them. Not so much the fact that their parents had been killed, but that they had something to bring them together for once in the last few weeks. "Yeah, of course. We're family, that's what we do," Felicity commented. Honestly, they hadn't at all felt like a family in the recent times, but Felicity would still do anything for her younger sister. Even if the two had their rough patches in their relationship, in the end it worked out alright. Though, it was certainly a battle to get there at times.

It hadn't occurred to Felicity that Carleigh probably wouldn't know that Alexandria had been working for the adult branch of the Death Squadron for quite some time and that it probably wouldn't sit well with Carleigh. "Ah, well, yeah. She's one of our investigators. Odds are she'll be the one to find out what really happened," Felicity commented, rather flippantly. She certainly didn't want Carleigh to think about joining up with the adult branch just yet, since it was dangerous work and she was fine just where she was. Felicity certainly didn't need another reason to worry about Carleigh on a daily basis. Besides, Carleigh was obviously serving them best by helping lead the student sector of the Death Squadron.

Hearing the door swing open, Felicity's attention flicked over to see Ilyana walk into the room. The distraction, while welcome in the sense that it changed the subject, was something Felicity wasn't sure she wanted at the moment. She knew that Ilyana and Carleigh still had quite a few differences between them, so she rather doubted that Ilyana's presence there would do Carleigh any good. "There's been an incident, Ilyana," she answered, rather vaguely. Though Ilyana's parents had been friends of the family, Ilyana herself didn't know the Stryder's parents at all, so she likely wouldn't care much. "You shouldn't worry about it, dearie," she added, giving her a rather fake and strained smile.

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[carleigh addison stryder]

Family. That sounded a bit weird coming from her sister's mouth and it bothered Carleigh in the slightest. Was what they had now still considered a family? It was only the two of them. And Ilyana, but the girl couldn't consider her a part of the fragmented family just yet. She was more of a visitor, a passerby, to say the least. Carls knew that Ilyana wasn't planning on staying any longer than she was forced to.

Confusion struck the blonde. She brushed her bangs behind her ear. "I don't recall assigning any investigators in the Death Pack," she stated. Carleigh began to piece that together. "She was promoted to the Squadron already?" she asked. Right about now was the time when the girl would throw her tantrum about how she deserved to be in the Squadron more than AJ did, but she remained silent. Yes, of course it bothered her a lot, but she had more important things to worry about then. The Squadron was the last of her problems.

The door to the room clicked open and Carleigh sat motionless. Usually she would have threw something at whoever entered without her permission, but she couldn't summon the energy. Hearing the familiar voice, Carl merely twitched and then went back to staring at nothing, slowly unwrapping her arms from around Felicity. She didn't want Ilyana there at all. That was the last face, the last voice, she wanted to see or hear at that very moment. "When is the funeral?" she asked, her voice was barely above a whisper, biting her lip and fighting back the tears that threatened to fall. Carleigh made eye contact with no one.

[ilyana lethe stryder]

If there was one thing that Ilyana had come to learn in her time living with Felicity and Carleigh, if the phrase "you don't need to worry" came up, it probably meant that you needed to worry. Felicity, from what Ilyana had learned, was the type of person that liked to take care of everything on her own and if there was ever some sort of problem than she preferred to just get everyone out of it first and then deal with it. If Ilyana was right, which she usually was, than there was a pretty decent chance that whatever had happened was something that Felicity would need help dealing with and that it was probably something that effected Carleigh as well. In the time that Ilyana had been there, she'd not seen Carleigh and Felicity acting like they really cared about each other, so this was something rather out of the ordinary.

It was also out of the ordinary that Carleigh simply ignored her. Usually, if Ilyana even thought about stepping foot into her room, Carleigh would pitch a fit and throw something at her. Then the word funeral came up. Ilyana had never met the Stryder's parents, but she'd heard bits and pieces about them from Felicity and was pretty confident in her assumption that they would be the ones the funeral was for. After all, it wasn't like Carleigh was that close with many other people and definitely not with anyone that she would cry about losing. She just wasn't friendly enough to make friends. At least, that's what Ilyana thought anyways. At that point, she rather wished that she could just back out of the room and act like she hadn't entered into the conversation at all, but that wasn't really something that could happen, since she didn't want to come off as insensitive and rude.

Hanging back by the door frame, so as not to get too involved with the moment that she obviously didn't belong in, Ilyana glanced down at the floor for a moment before speaking. Were she just to flap off her mouth like she typically did, nothing good would have come from it. She was brash to the point where she just said whatever came to mind and at the moment, that wasn't something she should be doing. "I ah- I'm sorry about...whatever happened," she offered, rather lamely. At least it was better than sounding off with some sort of commentary on how at least they'd had parents that cared about them for a time or about how it wasn't so bad losing parents. It being something she had gone through not so long ago, Ilyana at least could offer some sort of advice on how to deal with it. Though, she imagined it'd be a whole lot harder for them than it was for her.

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[felicity leanne stryder]

Letting Carleigh process what she had accidentally let slip about AJ and her position, Felicity was rather relieved to see that Carleigh, at the moment, didn't seem to care overmuch. If anything, now was the best time to tell her about something like that, since she was clearly much more concerned with other things and didn't have the time to deal with something that was comparatively trivial. "Ah, yeah. It was a decision above me, but it's been working well, I believe," she said with a slight shrug. She wasn't going to discredit the work that the younger girl had done for the Death Squadron as of late, but she certainly didn't feel like it was the best move. She had, of course, campaigned for Carleigh to be chosen instead, but she had been outranked when it came to the decision and just hadn't mentioned it to Carleigh after that. What she didn't know wouldn't hurt her.

Although Felicity hadn't expected Ilyana to just leave, she had to resist the urge to let out a slightly upset huff of breath when Ilyana remained at the door, awkwardly giving her apologies. Felicity would much rather have just dealt with the situation quietly and if she hadn't deemed it proper for Carleigh to know, she probably wouldn't have told her either. Dealing with emotional situations wasn't Felicity's strong point, that was for sure. She much preferred to just try and leave other people out of the problems, making it easier on them. If anything, Felicity put too much on herself and needed to learn to let other people help her sometimes, but that just wasn't something that she was capable of. Giving Ilyana a light nod of gratitude, Felicity wasn't even sure what to say to that. The thought was appreciated, sure, but she much rather would have preferred if Ilyana left it at that.

The last thing that Felicity had been thinking about was the funeral. To be honest, she hadn't even intended to have one for her parents. She really just wanted to leave the arrangements for a burial, or whatever, to someone else and then move on from it. Probably not the best idea, given that she had a younger sister to worry about that most likely actually cared about what happened to the bodies of their parents. "I was going to make the arrangements later when you had time to give some input. Mother would have wanted your help. She always thought you had a better eye for creative details," Felicity replied, seamlessly making up some reason as to why she didn't have the answer and, in her opinion, it sounded rather good. Even if it was complete bullshit.

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[carleigh addison stryder]

Carleigh merely looked the other way when Ilyana attempted to act like she cared. She didn’t want that freaking thing in her room. Sure, they had been getting along alright for the past few weeks, but now was not the time. Anger flooded the girl’s mind as she sat there on the bed. Her thoughts threatened to erupt from her skull and the urge to just throw something at the girl in her doorway became more and more likely to happen. Carleigh clenched her teeth and remained silent, her hands gripping the blanket on her bed so tightly that her knuckles whitened. She needed to let all of her emotions loose, but she couldn’t, especially not in front of her sister and Ilyana.

”Well, now I have all the time in the world,” she spoke, her voice was almost icy. Now that their parents were gone and never coming back she didn’t have to rush anything, though it pained the girl to imagine helping with the arrangements. It was true that Carleigh was the more creative of the two, but she honestly didn’t think she could help, nor did she really want to. She wanted this whole situation to be over. The blonde chuckled dryly at the comment.

Why the fuck did this have to happen to her and Felicity? Sure, Carleigh had done some things that she regretted, some things that she shouldn’t have, but was Karma really this cruel? She honestly felt the need to blame herself for this whole mess. Maybe if she hadn’t been so reckless before, so arrogant, things would have ended differently. Maybe karma would have eased up on her. She wished she could go back in time and change things, just stuff her face into her pillow and all of her problems would go away. That wasn’t how things worked.

”Is there anything else I can do to help?” Carleigh asked, her voice barely above a whisper. Wow. This was a huge stepping stone. Carleigh Stryder offering to do work, to help someone. This was one of those rare occasions. Though she would rather just poof this all away, she would help if necessary, no matter how much she didn’t want to. The blonde felt useless, more than usual. She leaned back on the bed and sighed, staring up at the blank ceiling. Useless. That’s what she was. All day, every day.

[ilyana lethe stryder]

Though it didn't seem like either of the two other girls particularly wanted her there, Ilyana felt like she could help with the situation. She was less connected to their parents, obviously, so if there was anything that needed to be done that they couldn't do themselves, than Ilyana was more than happy to help the two out. After all, Felicity had taken her in when no one else would and that meant the world to Ilyana, even if she didn't always show it. Because of that, she would always feel indebted to the Stryders, even to Carleigh and with Ilyana, that loyalty meant a lot. She wasn't always the sort of person that stuck by people, especially when things got rough, but if you did something to earn her trust than odds were she'd make a constantly reliable companion for the rest of your life. Not that they probably wanted her around for life, anyways.

As her apology was let fall to the side, Ilyana was rather tempted to just back up and leave the two to deal with whatever it was needed to be done. However, at the same time, she didn't want to seem like she just didn't care or something like that. Dilemma's like this didn't often come up with Ilyana, since most of her friends from back home were in the exact same situation as she was in. Their parents were gone, didn't care, whatever and they had more or less been a rag-tag bunch of kids that may as well have been orphans. There was never parent drama with them, so this was new. Clearly, Felicity and Carleigh cared a lot more about their parents than Ilyana and her friends ever could have and that made her a bit nervous.

When Carleigh offered her assistance, Ilyana felt that she too should let Felicity know what she would be there to help with whatever they needed her for. She honestly didn't know what sort of stuff went into a funeral, but if they did need help than she didn't mind lending a hand. "Ah, I'm here to help too if you need it. Or you know, to talk or whatever," she piped up, mostly talking to Felicity, but also subtly extending the offer to Carleigh. Though the two girls weren't close or anything, she at least wanted Carleigh to know that if she did need someone to talk to that had been through all of that before, that Ilyana would be there for her. Though she couldn't say that she was always fond of Carleigh, she at least could say that she had come to care enough about her that she didn't want to just make her deal with something like that on her own. She doubted Carleigh would care about the offer, but it still stood, regardless.

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[felicity leanne stryder]

It pained Felicity to see Carleigh acting like she was, bottling up any emotions that were threatening to burst forth. It wasn't healthy for a kid her age to be like that and Felicity felt like it was partially her fault. She had never been particularly emotional herself and having been Carleigh's primary caretaker for the majority of her life, it was no surprise that she would have adopted some of Felicity's mannerisms. Fel just regretted that this seemed to be one of them. She reached over slightly to let her hand rest on top of Carleigh's, leaving the emotional support at just that and a quick look of sympathy before retreating back into her normal self. It was much easier to deal with things of this sort when she herself didn't have to worry about her own emotions coming into things and causing problems.

Pursing her lips for a moment at the offer of help from both of the girls, Felicity wasn't really sure how to respond. Yes, she wanted to keep Carleigh busy, but she didn't really know how to do that. Of course, Felicity wasn't a Slytherin for nothing and was quite confident that she could come up with something to get the both of them to go take care of something minor, but still of relative importance so that she could handle the bigger issues at hand. "I appreciate the offer, both of you," she commented with a curt nod, her mind running through the list of things that she needed to have done. "Actually, I have a few things that need to be done if you two are willing to go run a few errands for me," she added, pausing for a moment as she made a mental list of things for the girls to go do.

The majority of the things she would ask them to do would probably seem rather irrelevant, but Felicity always had a reason behind everything, so obviously it all had to be done eventually. Grabbing her wand, she summoned a piece of parchment and a quill and scribbled out a quick list of various things that she needed picked up, ranging from flowers to ingredients for the dinner she had planned. "If you two want to go pick these things up, that would be great. I understand if you can't though," she said with a slight smile on her face. It would probably be good for Carleigh to go out with a task that she needed to accomplish and she'd feel much better having someone with Carleigh, just in case. Since she had things to take care of herself, than the next best thing would be Ilyana.

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