Excuse me, sir?

[Utopia Browne]

November 22, 1884

It was Hogsmeade Weekend and Pia was grateful for the break from school. As much as she loved it, it was still nice to get away. Currently she was out with her mother and brothers. A bit of wandering that led the to the lake. With her mother doing her best to keep an eye on her brothers as they burned off a bit of excess energy, Pia made sure not to stray too far.

As she walked along, not far from the others, Pia was scouting out a nice place to read a book. The air was rather chilly but the sun was out at the very least. It was while she was searching that she spotted something shiny.

Stooping, she plucked it out of the brittle grass and tilted her head. It was a locket. Surely someone was missing this! Looking around to see if anyone was near, she frowned and curled her fingers around the trinket and continued towards the lake. Maybe she'd come across someone who had lost it or had seen someone pass by. Of course anyone might claim it was theirs. She'd have to be sure it got to the right person.

@Meryasek Moriarty

  

[Meryasek Moriarty]

Yaz had been talking to a mermaid that he managed to call up from the bottom of the lake. Black Lake mermaids were difficult creatures in his opinion; they were snooty like most of the residents in Hogsmeade. He guessed they thought that they were special. Ocean mermaids were much nicer and easier to talk to. They also were more curious than those from the Black Lake. Black Lake mermaids seemed disinterested and tight-knit.

Despite all of his distaste for them, though, Yaz had promised his cousin, Cad, that he would find out the latest gossip from these mermaids while he visited Hogsmeade. Yaz didn’t understand it, but Cad had a thing for mermaid gossip. And ocean mermaids hardly gossiped.

Yaz was able to get a decent amount of gossip from the mermaid before he noticed it was missing. Once he noticed his locket was gone, he swore in mermish, which ended the conversation with the mermaid. She thought him quite crass. Most merfolk didn't even use that phrase (which roughly translated to "Poseidon's great blue family jewels").

At first his thoughts went to Eilis. Had she stolen it when she had promised not to? No, it hadn't been her. He remembered his necklace was still around his neck after they parted ways. She had kept her word. After all, he was still feeling a little sentimental about her, and wanted to think the best of her.

He must have lost it somewhere between leaving Hog's Head and coming to the lake. Panic immediately struck him. It could be anywhere! With the mermaid already gone, Yaz was left to search for his possession. He retraced his steps ever carefully. It wasn't long before he bumped into a young woman. She didn't look older than sixteen, if that.

"Excuse me," he murmured, looking up at her.

She was a pretty thing and fully young and innocent. Still he couldn't keep his eyes from overlooking her whole figure. That's when he noticed the trinket in her grasp.

"That's mine!" The declaration was somewhere between a gasp and an accusation.

  

[Utopia Browne]

It wasn’t long before Pia came across a rather frantic looking young man. He looked to be a couple years older than Mr. Huxley. He was so distracted, in fact, that he bumped into her. Skittering back, she looked up at him, clutching her book and the locket to her chest. He barely even looked up when he muttered an apology. No more than a cursory glance until his gaze sharpened and fixated on her hands. His outburst startled her and instinctively she turned away slightly to protect her found object, instantly suspicious.

Sure, it would make sense as he seemed to be looking for something, but she didn’t like the accusing tone in his voice. Blue-violet eyes narrowed and her lips pursed as she moved the hand that held the locket behind her hand. Not far away, her mother looked up from a book she’d brought along and watched the interaction for any signs that she needed to intervene. The woman trusted her eldest daughter more than any of her children to be circumspect and extract herself from a situation that was veering towards unbecoming; after a moment she looked back down to her book.

“If it is yours, then you can describe it.” Pia challenged, lifting her chin. “In detail.”

  

[Meryasek Moriarty]

Yaz couldn’t believe this little twat! Asking him to describe his own property! Who did she think she was anyway? Yaz gritted his teeth. He was sure he could easily overpower her if he really wanted to and just take the locket back. But that wouldn’t be the smartest thing to do, especially with all of these people around. Yaz muttered a mermish swear under his breath before deciding to succumb to the young lady’s request.

“It’s a brass locket,” he began with a slight huff. “On its front, it has a seascape design with a mermaid curling around one of the sides. On the backside, there’s an engraving of my initials: MML*.

“Inside,” he continued. “There are three pictures. One is of my grandmother; another is of my mother and my eldest sister; and the final picture is of my youngest sister.”

He hoped that was enough to satisfy the girl. That locket was his most valuable possession and he didn’t plan on losing it to some Hogsmeade princess because she didn’t like his answer. He crossed his arms as he waited for her response. Obviously, he was not in the happiest of moods, which was quite unfortunate considering he had spent a good portion of yesterday and last night in the company of Eilis Hooligan. He had hoped his happy mood would have lasted longer, considering.

*Lockets and pocket watches are usually engraved in the order of first name initial, last name initial, and middle name initial. This is because the last name initial should be the largest initial on the casing of the locket/watch.

  

[Utopia Browne]

With the locket still behind her back, she stared back at the man. He was clearly not pleased with her demand for verification, but she wasn’t about to hand something over without first knowing that it belonged to the person. When he was finished with the description, she brought the locket around in front of her and inspected it more closely. It did seem to fit his description on the outside but she had to be sure. Flicking the locket open she did, indeed, find pictures of three women inside who bore a resemblance to the man. Appeased she smiled in the face of his scowl and held out the locket on the palm of her hand.

“I had to be sure you weren’t trying to take what didn’t belong to you. The clasp doesn’t look broken.” She wasn’t possessed of much jewelry but she did hate when clasps broke. But then she wondered how it had come undone. Maybe he hadn’t latched the clasp properly? Regardless, she was undaunted by his seemingly sour disposition. Her friend Mr. Merlin Huxley was sometimes possessed of a similar disposition...well according to others. She’d never personally experienced his more grim expressions or moods. Not even when he was plagued by a particularly nasty curse of bad luck.

  

[Meryasek Moriarty]

Thankfully, she seemed satisfied with his description of the locket. His feathers were still a bit ruffled though. He didn’t like her asking for a description in the first place, and he didn’t like her looking at the pictures in the locket. Yaz had never really shared those with anyone and this girl just opened it and looked!

When she held the locket out on her open palm, it took all of Yaz’s restraint to not snatch it out of her hand. Instead he managed to reach out and take it rather kindly, though his eyes were still glaring. He kept eyeballing her as he fiddled with the clasp. She mentioned that it didn’t look broken and it didn’t. Yaz wondered how it fell off in the first place.

Sighing, he unhinged the clasp and slipped the chain around his neck. He felt the clasp snap securely around the loop. He let go of the chain and let the locket fall to his chest. He regarded the girl again. He supposed he ought to thank her. After all, she was only trying to prevent the locket from being stolen.

“Thank you,” he said more docilely than before. The accusatory tone gone, though not all of the annoyance quite gone yet.

He paused for a moment. “And I apologize for my attitude. It’s just that”—his features softened—“this is the most important thing to me.”

  

[Utopia Browne]

Nodding slightly as he thanked her, Pia smiled and clasped her hands in front of her around her book. He still seemed a bit perturbed. She couldn’t tell if it was because he had thought she was going to steal the locket or because she’d made him describe it. No matter, his thunderous expression had no effect on her. If he tried to do more than glower at her she had a small arsenal of rather potent jinxes and hexes that could be used in her defense and her mother was not far away.

She wouldn’t not have to test out her jinxes or hexes, however, as the man seemed to come to his senses somewhat and his expression became less severe. Perhaps he had been so put off because he’d been worried? “I thought it looked quite important. That is why I had to be certain. I am glad to have found it for you and you are forgiven. I would be equally upset if I lost something like that.” Her smile was warm and kind and her expression earnest.

  

[Meryasek Moriarty]

He nodded, appreciating her words, all annoyance gone. Sometimes, he didn’t even understand his moods. He knew somewhere in the back of his mind that she was probably just trying to make sure he was the right owner. He knew he shouldn’t have snapped like he did. He sighed. He had already apologized, but that still didn’t keep the sense of guilt from lingering for a minute.

“I appreciate your diligence,” Yaz said with a small smile. “I probably would have done the same thing.” Her warm expression continuing to soften his heart.

He didn’t really know what to else to say to the girl. He supposed all the conversation left him when his conversation with the mermaid ended. He winced a bit at the memory. Now that he thought about it “Poseidon’s great blue family jewels” was rather inappropriate in the middle of a rather polite conversation. He wondered at trying to go back and get the mermaid’s attention again, but decided against it.

“Black Lake mermaids really are just too sensitive anyway,” he decided aloud, his voice soft.