Broken Wings

[Kit Blishen]

Even in Hogsmeade, a winged horse wasn’t exactly something conspicuous. At least it wasn’t one of the elephant-sized palominos, Kit consoled himself- Belle was distinctly a dappled-grey, and a hand or so smaller than a normal horse though she stuck out for other reasons- one of her large wings was distinctly held at an odd angle and smaller than the other, and she was also holding a cuddly kneazle toy. The thing had meant to comfort her when she was being weaned, only the horse had become rather attached to it.

Running his hand down her neck, he led her to the edge of the pond to let her take a drink, taking her toy from her mouth and holding it rather awkwardly as he glanced around. Inevitably there were people judging him- a grown man stood in the park with a child’s toy and a crippled winged horse! He was quite relieved to give the toy back to the horse (having Belle carry it seemed a little less mortifying) though this was short lived as he lead the mare away from the river bank and she decided to swing her rather gangly head away from him to drop the kneazle toy in the lap of someone sat on the nearby bench.

[Elizabeth Humphrey-Mavis]

Betsy's favourite pastime was still having a walk in the park. She adored the fresh air, she adored getting away from the park for a bit and she adored the idea of being able to run into friends while out. Now being chaperoned with her Great-Aunt Jane, Betsy now had the opportunity to gossip as well! The two of them could gossip together all day long, especially when it came to Betsy's wishing and scheming regarding Freddie and Miss Sleptova.

After some walking, Betsy began to feel a bit tired because of her corset and really heavy dress and all that nonsense that upper class ladies like herself had to deal with. She and her Great-Aunt decided to rest on a bench - after inspecting that it was tolerably clean, of course! - and they resumed their wonderful gossip and general girly conversation.

All of this gloriousness was soon however stopped with the sudden dropping of something into her lap. Something soggy feeling. Betsy looked down in disgust and looked up at the culprit. It was a... horse? A winged horse! Oh it was so terribly cute, and the poor thing was crippled. Betsy almost forgave it for getting her dress all gross and salivary. Stupid cute winged horse. She picked up the kneazle toy in her left hand with two fingers, utterly disgusted and holding it as if it carried the bubonic plague and then using magic (for like once in her entire life), she got the horsey/winged horsey saliva off her dress - which calmed her down incredibly.

Then she tried to get the cute cripped winged horse to take its weird gross toy back, because for all of Betsy's love of horses, that love did not extend to their spit.

  

[Kit Blishen]

Belle delicately took the kneazle toy off the young lady and stood there looking rather self-satisfied with herself as she tossed her tail, quite oblivious to the embarrassment she was causing her owner.

“I am very sorry!” Kit said to the young lady. “I’m afraid Belle is rather used to everyone pandering to her whims and being pampered a little too much.” His horses, he could talk about confidently. Anything else? Meh.

“Again, I do apologise.” He added with a small bow of his head as the horse tossed her head up and nearly hit him at the same time.