#Alia Underwood & Richard Claudine

[thevoyageurmoteplass-edits]

Random Dialogue Prompts for Magical Entrepreneur Story

Gif One- Demon: Are you fast enough? // Demon: I doubt it. // Demon: You'll lose her. // [Screaming]

Gif Two- Claudine: Are you OK?

Gif Three- Zeph: How is she doing?

Gif Four- Claudine: You made a mistake. Underestimating Alia.

Gif Five- Zeph: You need to trust me.

Gif Six- Alia: What are you doing here? Nothing I can see. / Claudine: I'm sorry. / Alia: Don't apologise.

Gif Seven- Alia: This homework is gonna be the death of me. // Zeph: OK. // Zeph: What can I do?

A/N: I'll probably write drabbles for these at some point.

[thevoyageurmoteplass-writing]

‘No,’ Alia said, glaring down at where Claudine was slumped against the wall. Despite her irritation at him, the thought of him simply giving up was something she couldn’t bear. ‘You don’t get to do this.’

A small smirk flicked across his lips as he slowly looked up at her. It felt strange, seeing her own eyes in a different face.

‘Now get up,’ she ordered, hesitating momentarily before she offered him a hand.

Reluctantly, Claudine nodded before taking it.

Alia pulled him up, tried not to think about how much she’d inadvertently gained from their relationship. Tried to ignore how the sallowness of his own skin made him look far gaunter than normal.

‘You have a plan?’ he asked, straightening to stand. She noticed his shoulders were slightly more slumped than usual, another observation she hastily pushed aside.

‘No,’ she admitted, refusing to look away from him despite part of her wanting to shy away. ‘But we’ll come up with something.’

‘We?’

Alia shot him an unimpressed look before turning away simply to get out of the corridor. ‘Only because you know more, old man.’

‘Ouch,’ he said with mock hurt. It was a tone of voice that reminded her starkly of Rufus, of the man she considered to be her actual father. Part of her desperately wanted to snap at him for that, but she knew it wasn’t worth it. They had bigger issues to think about.

‘You’ve been doing this longer,’ she said simply, absently holding the door open for him. ‘I can appreciate what that gives you.’

‘Doesn’t necessarily mean better,’ he reminded her gently.

‘Don’t dig,’ she chastised, ‘it’s unbecoming.’

‘Dig?’ There seemed to be genuine confusion in his voice, and Alia hastily disregarded it.

‘Just tell me what you know,’ she said, needing to get back onto safer ground before she accidentally found herself possibly liking the man she still wasn’t sure she could believe was her father or not.

[thevoyageurmoteplass-edits]

Random Magical Entrepreneur Story Edits

[thevoyageurmoteplass-edits]

Random Magical Entrepreneur Story Edits

Basically, I had some time yesterday and made some new gifs and edits so here are some of them.

[thevoyageurmoteplass-writing]

Alia watched as Claudine went about setting up for the latest spell. She hated to admit it, but there was something so captivating about the ease with which he went about it all, she could completely understand why so many people held his name in reverence.

With a shake of her head, she folded her arms tightly across herself and looked away from him. Respect was something he’d earnt as a stranger, something she’d found it easy to give to him when he was nothing more than a name whispered in old books. Finding out the truth of his relationship to her? That had shattered everything. Suddenly she couldn’t help but think about him in a different way. It was impossible not to remember he was the man that had abandoned her mother.

‘You could always help,’ he said softly, the lilting Welsh accent of his voice gave the words an almost sing-song quality.

‘Thought you were doing just fine by yourself,’ she said petulantly. It didn’t matter that the spell seemed interesting, that it was new and therefore something she longed to learn about. All that mattered was that she no longer knew how to interact with a man who had once been a kind of hero to her; who know she felt the need to dislike out of loyalty to her mother.

Claudine chuckled softly, and her attention snapped towards him. He was sitting back on his haunches. There was the barest flicker of a smile on his lips that rankled Alia more than she cared to admit.

‘What?’

‘Your mother said you’d inherited my stubbornness,’ he said simply. ‘I didn’t quite believe her.’

Alia merely glared at him. Part of her wanted to snap at him, to say nothing about her came from him. But she knew that couldn’t be possible; genetic makeup wasn’t something you could simply ignore. Nurture had some say in how she’d turned out, but being related to Claudine had some too.

‘Alia –’

‘No,’ she said, taking a step closer to him. For once, she was taller than him, yet she’d never felt more like a little kid in his presence. ‘You don’t get to tell me about the things I got from you when you weren’t there. You don’t get to explain why you left, because you don’t owe me shit.’

Claudine heaved out a deep breath. She could see the sadness behind his eyes, and found that she didn’t really care for being the cause of it. She didn’t back down, even when she noticed the slight shuttering of emotion behind his eyes. If he wanted a relationship with her as a daughter, she was determined to make him work for it. To make him earn that kind of connection just like Rufus had. It didn’t matter why he’d left, she owed herself the power of that choice at least.

[thevoyageurmoteplass-writing]

Richard Claudine was known for keeping a steady head even in the worst of situations. People relied on his steadfast stoicism for a calm in the storm so often that it felt like his default reaction to things. A reaction he could no longer deviate from simply out of habit. Or so he thought.

‘No,’ Alia said simply, and even though Claudine couldn’t see her face, he heard the steel in her voice; saw the way her shoulders were rolled back, and spine straight. She barely came up to the demon’s shoulder, even in the form of a man, and yet there was something almost more terrifying about her stance than there was of the looming figure.

 ‘No?’ the demon sneered, patronisingly crouching so they were more level. But its attempt to get closer faltered. For a moment, anger flashed behind those darkened eyes.

Claudine didn’t remember moving, but suddenly the demon was straight again. Claudine himself was closer, and Alia’s attention broken for a fraction of a second, to check for potential danger.

For any other demon, the distraction wouldn’t have mattered. The salted pentagram would have held firm, even without Alia’s focus on it. But this demon had more power than either of them had initially thought.

The Latin spell was already out of Claudine’s mouth before he could contemplate the consequences.

Pain shot through his arm, even as the demon cowered away from the wall of flame that burst to life between him and Alia.

‘Get out of here, Kid,’ Claudine said through gritted teeth. At least he now knew her protection spells worked: Nobody other than her could use combative spells on the school grounds without some sort of repercussions. He’d have to thank Madame L for that one.

‘Drop the spell.’

Claudine groaned, opened his mouth to argue, but she cut across him.

‘First, you’re destroying the salt,’ she told him simply, already gesturing the beginnings of her own spell work. ‘Second, what you feel is only a fraction. You know, familial links and all.’

Claudine hesitated, long enough for her own attack to overwhelm his. The wall of fire replaced instead with a shimmering wall that managed to contain the raging demon. It nursed an arm, proof of how close it had come to actually escaping the pentagram.

‘Don’t overexert yourself now,’ Alia sneered, though there was a sliver of softness to her expression that he hadn’t expected to garner. A look that made him wonder if perhaps one day things might get a little easier between the two of them.

[thevoyageurmoteplass-writing]

‘’You were saying?’ Alia whispered, glaring at Jed as the two of them huddled closer together in the confines of the closet. She knew that part of it was her fault, that she could simply have used a spell to stop him being such a pig-headed idiot; but most of the blame lay at his door, and she refused to let him forget that.

‘You’re the magical one,’ he sneered, though his voice was so soft that she almost missed the insult. Almost missed the tint of fear behind the words. He was covering himself well, but not as well as he usually did. The whole situation had rattled him, and while Alia couldn’t blame him, she wasn’t about to share that fact.

‘Exactly,’ she hissed, pressing her ear to the door and listening closely for sounds of the demon. Outside was quiet, perhaps a little too quiet. ‘And you should have listened to me for that reason.’

She felt Jed moving closer to her. Instinct screamed at her to move away, but she knew he was settling himself against the door so he could listen too. Neither of them wanted to be stuck in a closet. Not when there was a demon on the loose, and least of all with each other.

If she was being honest, however, Alia wasn’t sure who she’d want to be stuck in a closet with. She just knew that Jed was very close to the bottom of the list.

‘If you were better at what you did...’

‘Don’t,’ she snapped, poking him firmly in the chest.

He yelped, put his hands quickly over his mouth as they shared a wide eyed look.

Alia’s heart thundered as she pressed her back to the door. Footsteps were hurrying towards them. Not the usual loping gait of a possessed person, nor the scuttling she’d come to expect of some demons. The footsteps themselves were almost normal in their pace.

The door was yanked open, and instinctively Alia started murmuring a protection spell, trying to put herself a little in front of Jed, who was standing like a shield before her.

‘Aw, this is cute,’ teased Freddy, causing Alia to exhale, to cut the spell off before it could do any damage to her best friend. ‘Who’d have thought you two would be getting cosy?’

Jed shoved out of the closet, knocking into Freddy’s shoulder as he did so. Alia could have sworn she heard him grumbling about how the lot of them were idiots.

Freddy’s attention shifted to her as he rubbed his shoulder absently. ‘All good?’

‘Claudine turned up, didn’t he?’ she asked, stepping out of the closet herself and glancing both ways down the corridor. There was no sign of the demon that had been chasing them, no sign of the chaos it could have caused.

‘Actually, it was Marty,’ Freddy said, and she glanced up at him quickly enough to see a small smirk on his face. ‘Yeah, it was Claudine.’

‘Great,’ she grumbled bitterly, really hoping that next time he decided to show his face, she wouldn’t be hiding rather than doing something. Wouldn’t look like she was just an incompetent kid even though she’d spent the last few years honing her craft.

[thevoyageurmoteplass-writing]

There were many times when Claudine had idly wondered what it would have been like to be a parent. Cases involving children were the worst for it; and yet somehow he thought he’d steeled his heart against the lost life he could have had.

Until he met Alia Underwood. The affectionate complaints he heard from Madame L; the fact she looked like the ghost of someone from his past; the realisation she was actually good at what she did. They were all contributing factors to him wondering if his own kid would have turned out like that, or if he’d have kept them as far away from everything as possible.

Anger clawed its way up his throat. For once, the taunts of the demon had got to her. Despite her best attempts to remain calm, he could see the doubt behind her eyes; the slouching of her shoulders as she tried to make herself small enough to be ignored.

‘You made a mistake,’ Claudine said, standing a little in front of her, preparing to dispel the demon. ‘Underestimating Alia.’

He heard her give a soft gasp, but ignored it.

‘Going to clean up her mess?’ the demon taunted.

‘No,’ he told them firmly. ‘But I am going to do a little pest control.’

Before the demon could talk, Claudine dispelled it. He kept his eyes trained on the spot, even as it raged. Even after the demon finally disappeared back to Hell.

‘Thank you,’ Alia whispered, voice so small Claudine almost missed it.

He kept his focus on the spot where the demon had disappeared, giving her the option to heed his words or ignore them without an audience. ‘That demon was lying when it said you were a failure with all this. You’re one of the best I’ve had the pleasure of working with.’

‘Thanks,’ she muttered, and all Claudine could hope was that she realised he truly meant those words. That the doubt she was feeling wouldn’t take over completely.

Perhaps he could stick around a little longer, just to make sure the demon hadn’t done too much damage.

[thevoyageurmoteplass-writing]

Alia understood that fear made people irrational. She knew that it could freeze even the bravest of people. And yet, seeing the great Richard Claudine reduced to a man that looked scared, weak in this instance, annoyed her. For so long he’d been a mystical hero to her, a figure she could only dream of meeting, let alone working with. Interrogating demons was always difficult, but something had made Claudine go pale with this one.

‘What are you doing here?’ she demanded, only briefly looking to Claudine so he knew she was addressing him and not the demon. ‘Nothing I can see.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Claudine offered, more emotion behind his words than Alia had expected. Still, she couldn’t dwell on that.

‘Don’t apologise,’ she told him. ‘Either help or get out.’

‘Are you really going to let her speak to you like that?’ sneered the demon.

Alia opened her mouth to retort, but clamped it shut when she heard Claudine reciting a lazy dismissal spell. She looked at him sharply. Lazy wasn’t necessarily shocking with him, but verbal magic was. Whatever the demon had whispered to him had really got to him.

Only once the demon was gone did Alia slowly turn her attention fully to Claudine. She wanted to say something, to offer some comfort because deep down she knew her reaction was more an issue for her than because of anything he’d done. And yet, the words wouldn’t come.

‘Claudine?’

He blinked, a slight mistiness to his eyes that she belatedly and panickedly realised were tears. But he turned on his heel, strode away from her before she could pry, even though she wasn’t even sure if she would have this time. Some things were private, and she didn’t know him well enough to demand answers simply because his reaction had put them in possible danger.

[thevoyageurmoteplass-writing]

For as long as he could remember, Claudine had never really been afraid of the demons he confronted. They were nuances. Dangerous ones, that he could appreciate, but the thought of them doing anything to him was one that had long since ceased to bother him. And what was the point in caring about what he left behind? He couldn’t do aught about it if he was already gone.

Watching Alia face off against demons over a foot taller than herself, and sometimes double as wide, that terrified him. Not because he doubted her skill. Not because in those moments he was forced to acknowledge just how fragile she seemed. It wasn’t even simply because Gemima had admitted to him that Alia was his, biologically speaking. It scared him that one day, if she kept it up, she might end up as broken as he was.

It was for that reason, and that reason alone, that he did it. Even though he knew it would only exacerbate her dislike of him. Might drive an insurmountable wedge between them that was the last thing he wanted.

‘What the hell are you doing?’ Alia hissed as Claudine placed himself firmly in her line of vision. The spell she’d been working on shattered with her broken sightline, but he’d already done some of his own spell work. Habit more than anything.

‘Yours was faltering,’ he lied simply, glaring at the smirking demon before him. There had been no danger of Alia’s spell failing, she was too good by half for that, but the demon had figured something out, that much Claudine was certain of now.

‘Bullshit,’ she said, trying to sidestep him.

Claudine moved with her though, felt his heart thumping double-time in his chest. Was it the demon’s doing, or the fear? It didn’t matter in the end, he supposed.

‘Go back upstairs,’ he said, twisting his hand and earning a gasp of surprise from the demon as the circle closed around it.

‘No,’ she told him defiantly.

The demon pushed back, and in that moment Claudine knew he’d made a mistake.

‘It feeds on discord,’ he said, voice barely more than a reverent whisper.

Alia’s attempts to get around him stopped, and it took all his control not to turn back to her. To check on her in case he’d missed another threat.

‘And it’s trapped beneath a school,’ she whispered.

Claudine felt her hand on his back. A brief contact, there and gone again so fast he might have just imagined it. But something told him he hadn’t, that it was her way of trying to tether a synchronicity between them.

‘I’m gonna go check upstairs,’ she said, and Claudine felt the demon recede with the circle ever so slightly. Felt a little of the weight in his chest easing. ‘But then I’m coming right back.’

She was gone before he could argue. Part of him knew it was the sensible course of action. Yet part of him really wished he could remain to be the barrier between her and the worst that Hell had to offer forever.

[thevoyageurmoteplass-edits]

Magical Entrepreneur Story Introduction

Richard Claudine started investigating the occult when his best friend went missing and the only clue was a strange symbol on the floor, and random chanting having been the only information the police received from a possible witness. He was eleven years old at the time, and quickly found himself getting drawn into a world of magic and demons, making a name for himself amongst those that had had information passed down for generations. So, when he hears of a possible attack on a prestigious school, he can’t help but investigate what exactly is going on.

Life, in Justin’s eyes, was good. So he didn’t have the best of jobs, and he was still living at home with his mother and younger sister because prices in London were so far out of his reach it was ridiculous, but he didn’t mind. He loved his family, and his colleagues were good people. There were even customers to the little coffee shop that he’d miss if they didn’t come in as normal. So, when a strange, creepy man comes looking for a regular, Justin begins to wonder if things really are as boring as they seem.

If Alia was completely honest, she’d never meant to get into all things occult. The research was idle curiosity, and the putting it into practice was merely to see how much truth there was in the books. Soon, she finds herself using that information to protect the people she cares about, and the wider school community as more ominous symbols appear around the place. It’s always been something she did alone, a secret even from her closest of friends if only to protect them from the dangers, but what harm could really come from them learning the truth?

[thevoyageurmoteplass-writing]

Magical Entrepreneur Story Introduction

Richard Claudine started investigating the occult when his best friend went missing and the only clue was a strange symbol on the floor, and random chanting having been the only information the police received from a possible witness. He was eleven years old at the time, and quickly found himself getting drawn into a world of magic and demons, making a name for himself amongst those that had had information passed down for generations. So, when he hears of a possible attack on a prestigious school, he can’t help but investigate what exactly is going on.

Life, in Justin’s eyes, was good. So he didn’t have the best of jobs, and he was still living at home with his mother and younger sister because prices in London were so far out of his reach it was ridiculous, but he didn’t mind. He loved his family, and his colleagues were good people. There were even customers to the little coffee shop that he’d miss if they didn’t come in as normal. So, when a strange, creepy man comes looking for a regular, Justin begins to wonder if things really are as boring as they seem.

If Alia was completely honest, she’d never meant to get into all things occult. The research was idle curiosity, and the putting it into practice was merely to see how much truth there was in the books. Soon, she finds herself using that information to protect the people she cares about, and the wider school community as more ominous symbols appear around the place. It’s always been something she did alone, a secret even from her closest of friends if only to protect them from the dangers, but what harm could really come from them learning the truth?

[thevoyageurmoteplass-writing]

‘That kid’s in here a lot nowadays,’ Amber commented as soon as the door closed behind Alia.

Justin sighed, nonetheless a small smirk curved his lips as he turned to face her. ‘Surely you remember what school projects are like.’

Amber shrugged, turned her attention back to filling the chocolate shaker before the commuter rush. ‘Pretty sure posh kids don’t get projects that force them to check some allergy standards at an independent coffee shop. They wouldn’t want their little darlings mixing with the peasant classes if they could help it.’

Slowly, Justin blinked at her. ‘What makes you say posh kids? Could just be well-spoken.’

Amber scoffed, causing some chocolate shavings to tumble onto the counter. She brushed them away with the side of her hand as she spoke. ‘You remember what district of London you’re in right now don’t you, Peckham?’

‘Ha, ha,’ said Justin dryly. The cross city cycle to get to work only highlighted the difference between where he lived and where he worked; from council estate to affluent area. Sometimes, there was no forgetting which district of London he was in.

‘Anyway, it’s more the fact she’s been in here a couple of times with that Ashcroft kid than anything.’

Justin shot her a blank look as he wiped over a couple of trays that had been left for cleaning.

Amber let out an exasperated groan. ‘You are incorrigible, Justin Moreaux. Only the kid of two political bigwigs. Two opposing political bigwigs no less.’

‘And you’re just mentioning this now?’ Justin asked sceptically. It was normal for Amber to defer all political talk to someone else, knowing how little attention Justin paid to much of it. But celebrity news? Her failure to mention, even in passing, a minor celebrity had been in the café a few times in recent months was unusual.

‘Thought it’d be some reminiscing thing, you know?’ she asked as a new customer entered. Justin glanced up briefly at the new arrival, shot the blond man a small smile as Amber lowered her voice. ‘Like, we’d talk about that one time Fred Ashcroft came here just to make dull days a bit better. Didn’t expect him to still be coming here every other week!’

‘Good afternoon, what can I get you?’ Justin greeted their customer, trying to cover the smirk that was fighting its way onto his face from Amber’s comments.

‘All right, mate?’ the man said, Welsh accent obvious. He opened his mouth, probably to order, but was cut off by the door swinging open with more force than was strictly necessary.

‘Claudine, no,’ said Alia, voice firmer than Justin had heard it before.

A smirk tugged at the man’s lips. ‘Whatever she normally has, a black coffee and your usual, cheers.’

Alia strode over, radiating such irritation that she seemed much taller than her short stature.

‘Don’t worry, love,’ the man said as Amber started preparing the order. ‘It’s just a little chat about the possible end of the world.’

Alia groaned and it took a moment for the words to fully sink in for Justin as he brought the order up on the till. ‘That’ll be… I’m sorry, pardon?’

[thevoyageurmoteplass-writing]

Alia was used to places that made her skin crawl, used to the uncertain prickle of unease she could never quite shake around new people. In her line of work, coming across those types of things was inevitable. Somehow, she’d managed to ward herself against those types of things getting to her too much, managed to find ways to distract her thoughts from those fears so she could instead focus on the task at hand. Being with Claudine, however, somehow made things worse. Realistically she assumed that being with a mage of his standing might have made matters easier. If anything, it made matters worse, though.

‘You don’t have to be here,’ Claudine said, his voice drawing Alia’s attention away from her thoughts and towards the towering figure beside her. The flickering lamps on the walls of the dim corridor cast shadows across his face, but they didn’t hide the concern that shone behind his eyes. Parental concern. It annoyed her that so quickly after the truth had been unveiled, he felt the right to that kind of emotion.

‘I do,’ she told him, forcing her attention back to the uneven surface of the floor. ‘If your friend knows about why the school’s suddenly a hive of demonic activity, I want to hear it from them.’

‘Rather than from me.’ Was that a tinge of disappointment behind his voice? Of hurt?

‘The horse’s mouth is better than second-hand information,’ she said stiffly, not sure why she felt the need to make him feel better about the whole thing, even if only slightly.

‘Very wise,’ Claudine murmured, causing her to look at him sharply. There was a small smile dancing on his lips, but there was no maliciousness, no teasing, behind that look. It was as if he agreed with the comment, accepted the logic behind it rather than taking it personally. Still, the comment got her back up slightly; she couldn’t help but find something patronising behind his tone.

Obviously sensing her unease, Claudine awkwardly cleared his throat, shoved his hands into his pockets. ‘So, um, how’s your mum been?’

Alia scoffed softly at the strangeness of the question. Not that the question itself was strange, rather that it was so normal it felt slightly absurd. It was the kind of conversation starter a parent would use after they’d been out at work all day; the kind of thing Rufus had asked her even when he could hear her mother singing in the kitchen as she clattered around getting dinner ready.

‘She’s been good,’ she admitted, glancing briefly over her shoulder. The darkness engulfed the passageway, lights burnt down as soon as they had passed. She wondered idly if she started wandering back that way if they would flicker back on again. ‘Enjoying work and… everything.’

‘That’s good,’ Claudine murmured, gently putting an arm out to stop her from walking any further. His tone shifted suddenly, voice low and a serious note behind his words. ‘I need you to stay close. OK? You came on the promise of doing as I said during this meeting, but I mean it more than ever, Alia. Don’t ask questions, don’t say anything, and if I say you’re leaving then that’s what needs to happen. No matter what.’

Alia opened her mouth, but Claudine shot her a look that reminded her of just how powerful he really was. It reminded her why Richard Claudine had been a magic user she was inspired by when she heard the stories, even if sometimes she thought they were over exaggerations of the truth.

‘OK,’ she agreed softly.

[thevoyageurmoteplass-writing]

‘Oh, and then there’s Marco and –’

‘Freddy,’ groaned Alia, glancing subtly around the packed corridor, ‘maybe don’t discuss the clandestine business venture and customers who are eager for discretion on the way to Chemistry.’ It didn’t matter that nobody was probably listening, didn’t matter that their little setup wasn’t exactly a secret, but it wasn’t exactly the kind of thing Alia wanted to talk about right now. If they didn’t talk about it, she could feign ignorance and pretend that Freddy hadn’t roped her into agreeing to act as a school exorcist.

‘Yeah, yeah of course,’ he said nervously, glancing around the corridor openly. When he looked back to Alia he tapped the side of his nose, eyes glinting with the usual excitement that seemed to radiate from him whenever they discussed anything relating to the supernatural. ‘Mum’s the word.’

Despite rolling her eyes, Alia couldn’t help but smirk. There were, after all, worse people to be stuck in business with than her best friend.

‘Did you watch that show?’ Freddy asked, shifting the strap of his satchel up his shoulder.

It didn’t take them long to reach their classroom, with Alia listening to the ramblings of Freddy, as if his attempt to keep his own thoughts away from work admin. But, Alia had barely stepped over the threshold when she paused. Freddy walked into the back of her, and whatever comment he was about to make was lost to her. The man standing at the front of the class wasn’t their usual teacher. In fact, there was something about his bearing that didn’t make him seem like a teacher at all. Least of all one who’d work at Saint Michael’s.

‘Al?’ Freddy said softly, gently putting a hand on her shoulder and guiding her out of the doorway.

She shook her head and glanced towards him. Still, there was something about the man that niggled at the back of her mind; a feeling she couldn’t quite shake.

‘You’re not Miss Carson,’ someone piped up, earning jeering laughter from a few others.

‘Well done for noticing,’ the man said, voice a touch too sarcastic as he lent back against the desk he was perching on. ‘I’m your supply, Mr. Claudine.’

Alia stopped partway to her seat and rounded on the man. ‘Claudine?’ she blurted out.

The man winked. ‘One of you’s got it already. Now, books out.’

Alia remained rooted to the spot though. Claudine wasn’t exactly a unique name, but slowly it allowed her to piece together the thing annoying her about him. She’d done enough magical research, spoken to enough people, to have heard tales of the infamous Richard Claudine. The moment of recognition was her own spell alerting her to the presence of magic – a precautionary thing she was in the middle of trialling given the influx of demons nearby.

Claudine’s brow furrowed. ‘Forgotten where your seat is?’

A ripple of laughter went through the room, more at her expense for being called out than actually finding the comment funny. Not that Alia cared. If this really was Richard Claudine then the problems at the school weren’t just some trivial expected teenage experiment with a Ouija board. Or, if they’d started off that way, they certainly weren’t any more. This was suddenly a lot more serious than she’d first thought.

‘Fred,’ she murmured, a sick feeling settling in her stomach as she finally took her seat near the back of the room, ‘we might just have a very real problem.’

‘The supply’s a demon?’ he whispered, excitement obvious as he keenly watched Claudine.

Alia shook her head, oblivious to whatever bullshit the man was spouting as his cover story for being there – how had he even got into the international school as it was? She guessed magic. ‘Worse. An actual master of the dark arts and exorcist.’

[thevoyageurmoteplass-writing]

Magical Entrepreneur Story Headcanons

One time, Freddy ‘hacked’ Alia’s Instagram and changed her name to ‘petitedabbler’ because of her size and she hasn’t bothered to change it back yet.

Freddy always carries a spare EpiPen on him; even if he isn’t with Alia. Despite how he could probably get hold of one, if anyone questioned why he needed it, it’s one of the few times he’d actually pull the ‘Do you know who my parents are?’ card, he asked Alia for one of hers because he needed to know that she was OK with it.

Richard works out that Alia has a serious nut allergy - worse than her mum’s mild one from when they were younger - and constantly tries to keep all nut things away from her when they’re working together, despite how it’s only ingesting them that causes a reaction for her.

Alia was meant to be born on the 25th of June, making her a Cancer. However, she was early and instead born on the 5th of June, making her a Gemini.