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The Note
Author: Ethan Somerset
Date: 05-05-14 13:16
After dropping Lilly off at Aveline's, Ethan went to Hogwarts to assist with Course Day. He taught lower years Defense Against the Dark Arts, which meant his course was required for all of his students. It was also a required course for fifth years, taught by Kissy Isuki Weatherby. Since his students didn't have the option of not taking the course, Ethan wasn't really required to be at Course Day, but he knew that Kissy wouldn't mind if he assisted her with answering questions about sixth and seventh year DADA.
Besides, he needed to get out of the house. While eating breakfast, blueberry waffles with syrup, sausage links, and scrambled eggs, a letter arrived for him via a large, gray owl with a disheveled appearance. It flew back out the window without waiting for a treat and left behind clumps of feathers, which delighted Lilly to no end. While she busied herself with collecting the gray feathers and adding them to her breakfast plate, Ethan unfolded the note he had taken from the owl's black talons.
We missed you in Hogsmeade. Where will we strike next? Your home? Your place of work? We're sure you're simply dying to know!
F, F, & FF
Ethan thought in the grand scheme of things, Adriana wouldn't bother with him or his home, though she would perhaps allow her followers their petty grievances as a reward for loyal service or a job well done. Ethan only allowed himself to worry because of Lilly. Meadow knew where he lived, and the others could just as well find him without their help. He could put up more protective wards and also speak with his contacts at the Ministry, but that would only help so much.
Ethan thought about sending Lilly to his parents, but Hattie knew all about them, having kidnapped him as a child right from under their noses. She probably knew about his siblings as well or could find out about them, so Ethan wasn't sure leaving Lilly with any of them would be better in the long run. There was Aveline, though her own ties to Ethan through Lilly's mother inevitably led straight back to Hattie and also Nero.
Ethan wondered if he and Lilly should stay at the castle for a while, if Minerva allowed it, though he didn't see why she wouldn't. Maybe Viktor would take them in, though Ethan wasn't sure if Hogsmeade was safe in comparison to Hogwarts.
He hadn't yet told Minerva about the threat to the school, mainly because he thought it was idle talk from his three enemies and not necessarily on Adriana's agenda. He planned on it tonight, however, after Course Day was over. Better to give her the warning, however serious it was meant to be taken, than to have something happen without any heads-up at all.
Close Encounter
Author: Hermione Granger
Date: 05-05-14 16:00
Hermione walked by a patient with a nose that put Rudolph the Reindeer to mind. He was already in good hands, though he blustered loudly about the pimple he'd tried to eradicate for his big date later that night. The wizard had a booming sort of voice and whether he intended it or not, the entire ward heard what he had to say. Staff standing around the nearby nurses station couldn't contain their laughter. Hermione shot them a reprimanding look and went on about her business.
She had a lab report to pick up and made her way down the hallway to the lifts. The patient with the big, red nose, who was a single father trying to meet witches again, could still be heard clearly, even though Hermione had managed to put some distance between herself and his hospital bed.
She got to the bank of lifts and waited for one to arrive. After a minute or two, during which she heard the wizard complain about how difficult it was trying to date while caring for two rambunctious boys under the age of five, the grille slid open, revealing an empty lift. Hermione stepped inside and waited for the grille to close again, when she heard a female voice call out, "Hold the lift, please!"
Hermione reached out her arm to stop the grille from shutting and saw a young woman with dark hair and strikingly familiar features skid to a stop and step inside the lift. Hermione stood frozen with her arm halfway into the hallway.
The young witch smiled at her and said, "Thanks. That was really nice of you."
Hermione found her senses, and though they were screaming at her to get off, she pulled her arm inside and let it hang limply at her side. She stared at the young woman, who adjusted the strap of her purse and looked straight ahead as people often did when riding in lifts.
After a long moment of silence, Hermione couldn't help herself. "Do I know you?" she asked hesitantly.
The young witch finally looked at her. She wore a look of surprise and then furrowed her brow in thought. "I'm sorry, but I don't think so. Do I look familiar to you?"
Hermione nearly said, You have no idea, but she bit her tongue. Instead she remarked, "You do resemble someone I used to know, and I think I've seen you here before. Are you a patient?"
The woman smiled. "Actually, I work here." She paused and shrugged her shoulders. "Okay, I'm a temp. I work here when they need me. Just clerking or reception, obviously. I'm no healer or nurse."
"Oh, well, it's nice to have you here," Hermione managed politely. "I'm Hermione Weasley."
The woman smiled but didn't offer her name. "It's a pleasure," she said. The lift stopped and the bell dinged and she said, "This is my stop. See you around."
And with that, she exited the lift and left Hermione wondering.
Post Break Up of Kid with a Broken Heart
Author: Melinda
Date: 05-06-14 15:21
Fingers pushed through her hair, eyes sliding closed as she stood at the kitchen counter. Things with Jefferson had ended easily enough, with minimal drama though Camden had not been entirely pleased but she would get over it soon enough. It would be different without Jefferson and Lawson in the house, and she was glad she'd told Christian no on his offer, she would earn her own place in the firm and not accept the hand outs of her employer - and Lawson's thought that she was sleeping with her boss was foolish, considering Christian was happily in a relationship with his boyfriend.
But, this move would be good for everyone involved and ultimately if she was meant to be with him it would happen. Otherwise, life would go on as it usually did as it always had for her ever since the death of Camden's father.
Tears had been shed, there may or may not have been a pint or two of ice cream consumed in her own personal end of relationship 'pity party,' but ultimately things had settled relatively quickly. She doubted Jefferson's friends thought highly of her, she doubted Remedy thought highly of her and probably thought of her as the reason her dad spent so much time at work instead of at home.
Turning away from the counter, she called Camden in from the yard where she was playing a pick up game of quidditch with a couple of the neighborhood kids.
"Lunch time kiddo, then I was thinking we could head into London and maybe go to a movie if you want."
Camden shrugged and pushed her chips around on her plate, before looking up at her mom. "We can do that. It will be good to spend some time with just us...."
Though, to be honest, Camden had really been hoping that Jefferson and Remedy would have become a permanent part of her family. Being an only child and not knowing your dad made for a lot of issues, but she knew that things wouldn't happen if her mom didn't want them to. She was learning that it was foolish to get her hopes up when it came to relationships her mom was in - not every guy she brought home was going to stay around, and she doubted her mom would find someone who wanted to raise someone else's kid - though Jefferson had at least seemed like he didn't mind it even though he had a daughter of her own.
Mel watched her daughter closely, wondering what was going on in her head, "You sure you are okay with everything that happened kiddo?"
Cam just shrugged again, popping another chip in her mouth. Chewing and swallowing she spoke, "Does it really matter? If he wanted to go, would me asking him to stay really have made a difference? Considering I tried that and he still left. He didn't want to stay, he has his own family to worry about and I'm not his family, you're not his family. We obviously aren't that important to him so why would he bother staying around?"
Without another word Camden pushed herself up and stormed out of the kitchen - the only other sound was the slamming of her bedroom door a few moments later.
It would seem that Camden was taking the break up a bit harder than I was, and I wasn't entirely sure what to say to her to make this better. This was decidedly one of those times where being a parent sucked royally.
Dinner with Lee
Author: Alaia Rothstein
Date: 05-06-14 16:48
Alaia arrived at the Leaky Cauldron ten minutes early and found Lee sitting at a table waiting for her. She smiled and he waved at her. It was nice seeing Lee again it had been too long, not that they were ever really close when they were in school.
"Hello." She said with a warm smile.
"Hello. How are you today?" He smiled back at her.
"I'm good." She sat down and made herself comfortable. They ordered drinks when the waitress came to their table and brought the menus. "How have you been?" She asked.
"Good. Work keeps me busy."
She nodded. "So does mine. Owning a business is a lot of work but I love it because it gives me a chance to do what I love."
"Last I had heard you had gone to school to be a nurse?"
"Yeah, I did, but I enjoy this more. I love helping people and making them smile but it is more fun to make people smile by giving them something sweet."
"Makes sense." Lee said with a smile as he perused his menu.
"So, do you have a girlfriend?" Alaia asked.
"No." Lee said shaking his head. "You have a boyfriend?"
"No, I am hopelessly single."
"Well that must get lonely?"
"Sometimes." She said. "But I have my cat and she keeps me company."
The two ordered their food and made more small talk and when they had eaten they went into Diagon Alley where they went and had ice cream. It was a good night and Alaia could not help but notice how handsome Lee had gotten over the years.
It was getting quite late and the two were still walking and looking in shoppe windows when Alaia finally said that she should be getting home.
"Can I walk you home?"
"Sure." She said with a smile and the two walked and talked until they reached her shoppe and her apartment.
"I had a wonderful time with you tonight. I hope that we can do it again soon?"
"I did too." He leaned in and kissed Alaia on the cheek. "It was really great catching up with you." Alaia nodded.
"Good night, Lee." Alaia turned and waved her wand at the door and unlocked it and went inside and then turned and looked back to see that he was walking away. She watched him and waited hoping he would turn back and look and just before he got out of sight he turned and looked. A smile formed on Alaia's face and she locked the door again and went upstairs to her apartment.
Say It Isn't So
Author: Bronwyn Dewhurst
Date: 05-06-14 18:53
Bronwyn and Desi sat across from each other in the Greenwich pub Richard the First. Bronwyn had ordered a large salad, while Desi had a half-eaten burger and fries on her plate. Both women had ordered pale ales to go with their meals.
For the past minute, there'd only been silence between them. Desi had just dropped the bombshell about going on a break with Orion, which Bronwyn was having a difficult time wrapping her mind around.
Desi picked up a fry and dunked it in brown sauce, since someone had walked off with the ketchup bottle belonging to their table and she hardly felt bothered to ask for a new one. She waited for Bronwyn to say something.
"So what did Bianca do this time?" Bronwyn finally asked, looking as if her relationship had just ended and not Desi's.
"She didn't do anything," Desi commented, "and you know it."
"I can't believe you are saying something nice about the sister who ruined your previous relationship." But then Bronwyn relented and added, "but I know Bianca's changed." She sighed deeply and said, "So, it's a break?"
"Yeah."
"As in, a clean break with the potential to eventually get back together or you're technically still a couple but just taking some time apart?"
Desi shrugged. "I guess we'll see what happens. Work is keeping me busy and is going to take me out of town a lot, probably for extended periods of time."
"But––!" Bronwyn started, completely dismayed.
"It's okay, Bron. We're okay, I promise."
Bronwyn didn't look convinced, but she decided to drop the subject––for now. She picked up her fork again and ate a few bites of salad.
"I sent Sagitta a package this afternoon," she finally said.
"Yeah?"
"Yeah. I saw the cutest pashmina scarf and just had to get it for her. She should have gotten it already, since I sent it from the post office in Hogsmeade."
"I'm sure she did."
Bronwyn fell silent again and picked at her salad. After a few more bites she couldn't help herself anymore. She fixed Desi with her most dejected expression and asked again and certainly not for the last time, "So, it's over? Really?"
Desi reached over to pat her hand. "Let's get some chocolate pie for dessert."
Ravenclaw-Slytherin Combination
Author: Georgia Copperpot
Date: 05-06-14 19:00
Libby slides the empty parfait glass to Sage. "I want more." Her tone is more than a little imperious.
"Libby, ask nicely and say please."
"I was being nice," she unblinkingly tells me.
"Liberty, you know you did not sound nice, you did not ask but told, and you did not say please."
"I was nice," she insists. "If I wasn't, I would have said, 'Get me more!'"
"Liberty Annette Copperpot," I bite out, sharply cutting off each word of her name.
She rolls her eyes at me in a manner that most parent put upon teens aspire to achieve and huffs, "Whatever," before very sweetly, almost angelically requesting of Sage, "Please may I have more, sex god."
If we weren't in public I'd plop my head onto the table and bang it a few times. Sage mouths to me, "It's okay," before picking the parfait glass. "Another of the same or something else, Libby?"
"Hmmmm. The one with the peppermint ice cream and hot fudge." She fixes me with a glare while just as sweetly saying to Sage, "Please."
Sage smiles charmingly at her, that sex god smile that still makes me vair swoony in the knee. "Coming right up. Georgia, do you need anything else?"
"No, I'm good, thank you."
No sooner is Sage out of earshot then Libby leans nearer to hiss, "You are ruining my date, cheeky monkey."
"You're nine, Libby. Sage will be twenty-three in a few days. How is this a date?"
"I asked Sage for ice cream."
"You mean you owled him without telling anyone else and demanded he come get you and take you for ice cream."
Libby gives me a pitying look. "He came. Here I am having ice cream. A date."
I take a deep breath to remind myself that she really is just nine before patiently saying, "I don't think Sage is thinking of this as a real date."
"Because you are here."
"No, because he's a grown-up and you are a child."
Again the pitying expression. "Love knows no age."
"Where did you hear that?"
"Mum's friend Miss Letitia."
Letitia Gunderson has just gotten divorced, is in her mid-forties and is dating a twenty-eight year old. Sounds like she felt a need to justify the relationship and just so happened to be within Libby's hearing.
"But Miss Letitia and her friend are both adults."
"You're just being mean because you are jealous."
"Jealous?"
"That Sage is my sex god now and not yours."
"You don't even know what a sex god is."
"So?"
I wave a hand, not even sure where to begin.
Libby, taking this momentary speechless as her victory, smirks. I swear if there were a combination Ravenclaw-Slytherin house at Hogwarts, Libby would be Sorted into it.
She sits back, smiling in smug satisfaction before saying, "You talk funny now."
"I talk like everyone else these days."
"For you, that's funny."
Sage comes back at that moment, Libby's peppermint ice cream with hot fudge in hand. It's only then I remember I should have pointed out he hadn't needed to take the dirty parfait glass with him as they'd give him another anyway.
Libby, somehow managing both an overly saccharine sweet smile and that satisfied smugness pointedly tells him, "Thank you, Sage."
If Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour sold liquor, I'd be downing a few shots right about now.