This is part of Aly's Cast the Bronze storyline. You can find other portions here: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

Maybe that's a chance you'll take...

Aly exploded into Peri’s new apartment in a whirl of green flames and tears on the night of March 28th, her plan to expatriate herself from her recently-acquired pureblood family (the Livingstons) having come about much sooner than potentially anticipated. She and Peri had cooked up the idea of her coming to stay in his new house over the Easter break whilst on the Express back to King’s Cross, and here she was just hours later, crying in his living room. She thanked every lucky star she’d ever had that she had met Pericles Dralt, because by Merlin, he was a saviour - picking her and her trunk up off the newly ash-covered floor, showing her to where she would be sleeping, cleaning the tears from her face. In truth, Peri was more family to her now than most of those who actually shared her blood.

In her tearful daze, she didn’t even notice the Nexus had become more than an abandoned building until the next morning, when she awoke in a fully furnished bedroom. There was fresh paint on the walls, a soft lilac complimented by a theme of gentle greys and warm champagnes. While some areas retained signs of former neglect, Pear had evidently made a point to flesh out the boudoirs first and foremost. Aly admired the way he had so carefully taken the time to redo every small detail as she dragged herself out of the soft covers and into the ensuite bathroom.

After a quick shower and a change into new clothes - ones that felt like her, all celestial-patterned shirts and corduroy overalls, rather than the fancy, "couture" pureblood outfits she’d been wearing for the past nine months - she found her best mate in the kitchen making breakfast for the two of them. It was lovely to get to spend time with Peri outside of the school, truly, and though Aly offered time and time again throughout their meal of pancakes and sausages that she could very easily catch the Pullman back to Hogsmeade and spend the rest of the Easter holiday at Hogwarts rather than intrude on his solitude and his new home, Peri refused to let her go. In the end, she promised to at least help him unpack and get settled, complimenting the progress he’d made on repairs and offering her assistance with whatsoever he needed over the next fortnight.

Later that evening, the pair of eaglets were halfway through unpacking a box of books by candlelight, settling them via alphabetical order into the new wooden bookshelf in the living room, when the doorbell rang, a cascading sound of bells and whistles that seemed all too ornamental for Peri and his beloved quiet. Aly stood, silencing the doorbell with a wave of her wand, from where she had been kneeling on the rug. "I’ll get it," she said over her shoulder to her friend, already moving towards the front door. "Are you expecting anyone?"

Before Peri could answer, the Ravenclaw girl opened the door, and suddenly, there was a vampire on their doorstep. No, that wasn’t some sort of turn of phrase - there was quite literally a vampire at Peri’s door, with slicked-back white hair and shimmering silver eyes, and in a flash of genius Aly recognised him immediately. It was hard not to, when the two men in her presence shared the same colouring: this was none other than Isaac Dralt, Peri’s father. A shipping admiral who owned a fleet of boats, the man in front of her had first introduced himself over the summer, when Aly had stayed for just a pair of days at the Dralts’ in Plymouth. The teenager’s mouth dropped open, and she offered Peri’s da a brilliant smile. "Oh! Hello again, Mr. Dralt! So nice to see you," she stammered, mostly from embarrassment rather than something like fear; she knew that, despite vampires’ reputations, the Dralt patriarch was kind to her and doted on his son. She moved aside a few inches, gesturing for him to enter. "Come in, come in. Sorry, I didn’t know Peri was expecting you."

He wasn’t, Isaac had confessed without a modicum of shame, though he crossed the threshold as if it were his own. It seemed he didn’t always determine the difference between doting and ignoring boundaries, but he wasn’t staying long, only popping in to assess his son’s progress before he’d be headed to "the office".

Aly’s eyes widened. "Oh yes, the shipping company. I’ve heard a lot about that from Peri," she explained, casting a mischievous grin her mate’s way. What she would neglect to mention, of course, was the two Ravenclaws’ private joke that they should switch parental mentors, since Peri’s dream to become an Auror seemed to align more with Aly’s mother’s career, and Isaac’s business was of some interest to Aly, at least. "You know, I was just in the Boathouse at school the other week. I really should take one of those canoes out on the lake at one point - I wonder if they’d let me."

Isaac, already charmed (and making unsubtle assumptions) over her presence, proposed that she come along if ever Aly wanted to see a "proper vessel". "More magnificent than any canoe, I assure you." Pericles was more perturbed by his father recruiting his friends than by an unanticipated visit. In spite of his reservations, he knew all too well that the ocean called to Aly. He wasn’t keen on the Company, but it aligned with her passions, and he couldn’t bring himself to deny her that.

Aly, who had actually been quite excited about the idea of drawing nautical maps and doing obstacle courses when she’d visited them in July only to end up touring illicit greenhouses and getting matching Patronus tattoos instead, was not about to turn down this offer. Plus, reminders from her professors were busy ringing through her head like alarm bells: You need to find a path, Miss Salinger. No one cares how many N.E.W.T.s you take if you don’t follow a career of some sort after you graduate.

Career, schameer. At least getting on a boat for the evening would be fun.

What she had not expected was the sheer amount of people it took to run a single ship. Aly followed Isaac, slack-jawed with awe, throughout the boat he was visiting in the local port, down by the nearby Poidsear Coast. Titled the Valkyrie, the creature of wood was a massive organisation of bustling deckhands and strapping sailors swinging from ropes and hoisting sails and lifting crates of goods; the Ravenclaw trailed behind her friend’s father, listening to him explain each and every role. The deck officers focused on navigation and safety; the engineers kept her in the water even when she ought to have sunk; the deckhands and sailors of varying ranks helped mostly with cleanliness and the day-to-day of business operations. There were also smaller departments - cooks, gunners, a medical wing, a few entertainers for long days at sea, and of course the quartermaster, who saluted Isaac and Aly as they went by. Aly’s ill-fated attempt at a salute back would, unbeknownst to her, be laughed at among the crew later the next day, once she had left the ship.

But she would be back. Over the course of the next two weeks, the rest of Easter break, Aly filled her days with naps and laughter and helping Peri unpack his new apartment and explore the charming little hamlet of Marunweem, which seemed to operate mostly on the basis of fishing expeditions and avoiding the ancient ruins of a castle up on a nearby hill (which, of course, only made the pair want to wander through it even more). Her evenings, however, found themselves performing these repetitive trips to Poidsear with Isaac Dralt, closely sticking to him and absorbing all his knowledge like a sponge: how to tie a proper knot, properly yank a halyard, pump bilge, and the like. Her hands were red and raw every time she returned back to Peri’s little nexus, but a bit of dittany balm did the trick, and the teenager had to admit she enjoyed the work. It wasn’t too repetitive, but was physical enough so that she felt like she was doing something, felt like she was helping - and wasn’t that all she had ever wanted? And, best of all, by the last evening of the holiday, Aly had managed to salute the quartermaster properly, with a sharp raise of her right hand and fingertips brushing lightly against the outer tip of her eyebrow.

They were on their way back to Peri’s place, strolling lightly through the cool night air over a stone bridge that probably would have fallen apart instantly if a giant even so much as looked at it funny, when Isaac said, suddenly and completely out of the blue, disclosed: "The Valkyrie will be in need of new hands come summer. If you enjoyed your visit, perhaps you’d consider a prolonged stay on board."

Aly’s eyebrows shot up. "Wait, do you mean - as in, a job? Are you offering me a job, sir?"

"It’s difficult work, more so in that season. But my son has long attested to your drive, as well as your competence, and I couldn’t help but note your affinity for the crew. You would start as a sailor, naturally. Though our navigator has expressed an intent to retire, and is in dire need of an apprentice capable of reading the stars."

The Ravenclaw’s freckled face split nearly in two with her giant grin; she reached immediately to clasp Isaac’s hand and shake it heartily, but thought better of it at the last second and pulled her hands back, simply clapping them together instead. "Oh! Thank you, thank you so, so much, Mr. Dralt. I promise I won’t let you down."

Two minutes ago, her future after Hogwarts had been uncertain, full of foggy mist through which this non-Seer could not see; now, suddenly, she was bombarded with the ideas of salty ocean air, breeze running through her curls, and needing probably a year’s supply of dittany balm for her rope-burned hands. There was only one question left to ask, then, about it all, as her life fell into place around her for the first time in her entire existence: "When can I start?"

The Nexus, Marunweem, Scotland | March 29^th -- April 12^th, 2026 | #C47DDB
Descriptions of the Nexus, Isaac, Pericles' inner thoughts, and Isaac's dialogue were kindly provided
by the wonderful @Pericles Dralt, who also allowed godmod perms for this solo!