Bustles and Blotts

[Alexandra Seymore]

A winter gale had been howling and blustering relentlessly all night. It swept through the narrow streets of Diagon Alley with a mad cackle of a howl, disorienting her as she passed from this shoppe to that gathering supplies for work, finally browbeating her into submission to seek solace in a dimly lit pub. Shaking her cloak's hood loose of the ice shards that had pelted her on her travels, it wasn't until she approached the bar for a warm beverage that she realized just how far off the beaten track she'd wound up.

Knockturn.

Regret washed over her at having let her escort get distracted with a bouncing bustle back by Flourish and Blotts, his waning attention having seemed fortuitous at the time. The lower classes frequented this establishment and should she be found within its walls without an escort after dark in a soaking wet gown... well... the gossip columns would practically write themselves now, wouldn't they.

@'Yasmina Khatri'

  

[Yasmina Khatri]

It was less than a whole week ago that Yasmina had gotten rip-roaring drunk at the Christmas dance in Hogsmeade and now she found herself in a leery drinking hole in London, possibly intent on revisiting intoxication and a firm reprimand from her aunt when she skulked in sloshed later. If she wasn't actually trapped in London until the shop returned at a later time. She blamed her sudden disdain for sobriety on the merry mood that seemed to be clinging to the air, even though Christmas was now two days gone.

She was retrieving a fresh butterbeer from the bar when she turned and nearly walked straight into a young woman. Her drink sloshed dangerously about, only dribbling over the rim slightly as she came to an abrupt halt. She hadn't consumed enough to be too tipsy to prevent a collision, not yet anyway. "Well that was close, wasn't it!" she chortled.

DECEMBER 27TH, 1887 | @'Alexandra Seymore'