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Dorcas often wondered if the Death Eaters and other followers of He-Who-Must-Not-be-Named mourned the loss of a comrade the same way the Order did.
She suspected there had to be similarities; as vile as they treated those they felt were beneath them, the zealots of their Lord were still humans. A flash of Fenrir Greyback crossed her mind and she added, a dark twist to her tone, "Mostly."
Caradoc listened without saying a word for several minutes. Dorcas had waxed on, aided by too much Firewhiskey. The hands holding the glass were bone-dry after repeated washings. She still couldn't get the scent of blood and human excrement out of her nose.
"Call it what it is, Dory," Caradoc said, raising his own glass to his lips. His jaw worked for a moment before he spat out another globule of blood, the bruise on his cheek all that was left of his wounds, healed by Lily earlier that night. Dorcas stared at the red spot on the concrete outside the Order's hideout, realizing fo the first time in her drunken haze that every thought in her head had fallen out of her mouth in Caradoc's presence. "It's piss, and shit, and blood, and the smell of fear-made sweat. It's the evidence they leave behind to continue to make this world a dirty and foul place."
The boy she'd grown up with, though he wore a blue tie instead of red like hers, sounded nothing like the man next to her. He hadn't been Dorcas's best friend for very long, but they'd both known and cared for Marlene, and had found solace in each other after her death. Given the choice, Dorcas would never have picked this burly and opinionated man to stand at her side most of her days, but his grit was invaluable the farther the Order dug into the viper's nest. Several weeks stood between this night and the night they'd lost Marlene, but the way they both fought and took down two more Death Eaters showed their pain and vengeful bloodlust hadn't diminished.
Raising her glass to Caradoc, Dorcas toasted, "To Marlene."
"Marlene," Caradoc echoed, before tossing back the rest of his drink, hissing as the straight liquor hit the spots in his gums where his teeth were repaired.
The two spent the rest of the evening finishing the bottle and toasting to those they'd lost.