Dust and Rubble

[Lula McGee]

The plague and the fire had rather turned the visit to Hogsmeade into something of a disaster. The carnival was due to leave before too long but if the quarantine wasn't lifted before then, they'd have to sit tight. She supposed though, that there were plenty of worse places to be trapped.

Lula decided to take a little tour of the High Street to see what sort of damage had befallen it. As such, she had had to don a more appropriate manner of attire than what she usually wore around her fellow carnies. The result was a dress that had the shape of a standard simple lower class dress but the fabric was a rather startling coral color with large cream stars all over it. As a result, she was earning herself her fair share of stares from the occasional passer by, not that she was perturbed in the slightest.

Spotting a man who seemed to be quite engaged in whatever he was looking at, she decided to approach him. "Lose something?" she asked in a chipper voice, feeling suddenly very nosy.

  

[Daniel Johnson]

Now this was just great. Bloody fantastic! Daniel was just finally starting to settle into Hogsmeade, and just beginning to slightly enjoy his job. He did not mind working as a bartender, he just believed that he could do better things with his life, at least it was easy to meet different people while working behind the bar. He was extremely chatty to all of the customers that he served. So now just when things were getting back to normal for him, a bloody fire had to break out and so did the plague! Jeez did someone have it in for him? Daniel was not afraid of catching the plague, yeah sure he could die from it but he was certain that his immune system has built up a resistance to some illnesses. He had been through some nasty illnesses in his twenty years.

The Three Broomsticks was closed due to the plague and the fire, and Daniel found himself having to walk around Hogsmeade to try and find something to entertain himself with. Wherever he went he saw the pale and worried faces of people running around, praying to Merlin that they would not catch the dreaded plague. He heard stories of families having to go into quarantine, and was thankful for once that he basically had no one. He was not going to succumb to the plague.

Daniel kept his head down as he strolled around the cobbled streets, kicking pieces of wood away with his feet. He pulled his ebony coloured cloak around him even more, as he felt the chill of the wind brushing against his skin. The place was a mess, wood and glass scattered all over the place, he could feel the dust particles rubbing against his nostrils threatening him to sneeze. Quickening his pace he made his way around the corner, only to come into contact with something hard.

His foot collided with a fallen brick, causing him to begin to curse wildly, his cheeks becoming a crimson red like they always did. Daniel used to get called rosy-cheeks in Hogwarts because of his constant blushing, well he could not help it. The people who called him received bruised cheeks, as a gesture of appreciation for their snide comments. Coins fell out of his pockets due to the impact of the brick, and he let out a low grumble. Dropping to the ground he began to search through the rubble, picking up the coins that were scattered around the place.

Danny was disturbed by a voice behind him, a feminine voice. He wasn't in a very good mood and he just wanted to pick up his money and go. "No," he replied in a blunt tone, usually he wasn't so moody, but when his foot was throbbing he didn't give a damn who was speaking to him. Collecting the last few coins, he shoved them into his trouser pockets. He rose to his feet and glanced at the woman who spoke to him, well this one was certainly going to receive odd looks from some of the snobs around the place. He could not help but mentally admire her for going out in such a vibrant colour, and with those stars! Anyone else might have thought her an oddity, but Daniel really wasn't in a position to be judging anyone else.

"Nice outfit Ma'am," he shot her a cheeky grin, diving his hands into his pockets to let his eyes run over her. He hadn't really paid much attention to her the first time, and so now he was remembering her face for future references. "Shouldn't you be inside? You know, with everything going on. You wouldn't want yourself catching something," he let his tongue do whatever it wanted to do.

  

[Lula McGee]

Lula pulled a face at the rather hostile response she was met with. It was true that as society saw it, she was being borderline indecently forward but she hadn't exactly been raised amongst proper society and so it was only normal to her and his reaction wasn't.

Thankfully, he seemed to cheer up a little once he was on his feet again. "Why thank you, a friend made it for me," she replied proudly, not really caring if he was privately laughing at the bold style, she liked it.

He was actually quite amusing though, thinking she needed to keep herself safe like she was some dainty lady. That being said, at 4'7" she was arguably dainty though she doubted many would argue for her being a properly lady, not that she was terribly improper either, her career choice aside. "I'm with the carnival, half of us are sick already, if I'm going to get it I'd probably have it by now. Guess I can thank my muggle blood for that." It had mystified her why she had managed to evade the illness when other carnies had succumbed, others whom she had considered far more hardy than she, but the Daily Prophet article from the other day had given her a reason for that. Not that hearing how she apparently had less magic in her blood than a pureblood was much in the way of consolation.