Lost Husband

[Llywelyn Lovell]

She hadn't meant to leave the door open... but it was hot and stifling in her rooms and smelled of Mr. Lovell (the barnyard smell seemed a persistent thing even though they didn't actually reside in a barn), and she'd opened up the doors to have a little fresh hair blow through -- as much as it could anyway, in the packed housing. Though, really, she didn't think he'd wander off as he had. She thought he had, at least, enough sense not to do that.

But now she found herself wandering through the streets as it got lost, calling out "Lou!" every few minutes into the growing darkness. Twice she'd been shushed by residents, but she'd simply sent them scowls and moved on. But now there didn't seem to be anyone about, and the street always took on a different appearance at night...

Clutching her wand tightly in one hand, she turned a corner into a small alleyway and stopped as she saw a figure approaching from the other end. She couldn't make out who it might be in the dark so she froze. Her own voice -- trying to sound confident -- made her wince in the silence. "Hello? Who's there?"

  

[Etta Flume]

Etta had been sent on an errand to get something for her mother, and was now dragging her feet to get back home because, well, she'd failed in actually doing it, and even if it wasn't her fault, she was fairly sure she'd be blamed for it anyway.

So she might have been sulking where she wasn't meant to, but she wasn't especially far from home--far enough that she could run if she didn't feel safe anyway--so when she heard someone's voice she jumped a little but still said, "No one."

  

[Llywelyn Lovell]

She breathed a sigh of relief as she lit her wand and saw that it was only a small girl, not someone meaning to do her any arm. Chuckling slightly, placing a hand over her still racing heart she smiled at the girl and came closer, hoping to see her face, wondering if she had seen her before. 

"Clearly somebody," she responded, her voice slightly teasing as she looked the girl up and down. It wasn't safe for her to be out in the streets alone at this hour. "Are you alone?" Her brow furrowed a little in worry she looked past the girl to the end of the street.

  

[Etta Flume]

"'Course not," Etta lied, making a great show of looking over her shoulder like someone was going to appear behind her at any moment to prove this as fact. Someone big and intimidating looking, probably. "Are you alone?"

  

[Llywelyn Lovell]

"Okay," she answered lightly, knowing full well that the girl must be lying. She didn't hear anyone else about, and the girl seemed a little too jumpy to have been in good company before coming around the corner.

"I'm looking for someone," she answered, looking about them. There was some questionable material sprayed on one of the walls at their side, and she was sure something small was moving behind a broken crate to her left. "Or... well," she chuckled, "something. I don't suppose you've seen a goat pass through here?" She looked at the girl, hopeful. She didn't want to be out searching all night.

  

[Etta Flume]

"A goat?" Etta repeated, as though she wasn't sure she'd heard correctly. It just wasn't the sort of thing she expected to find wandering around. "No. I didn't know anyone kept a goat around here." Not that she was an authority on the matter, obviously. "How do you lose a goat?"

  

[Llywelyn Lovell]

"Well... that's a very long story," she told the girl, a bit wistfully, stopping just shy of rolling her eyes. "The goat part, I mean. But as for how you lose a goat... that goat happens to be my transfigured husband... I wasn't keeping an eye on him and he just," she flung her arm out, "wandered out the door."

She shrugged her shoulders up. She was accustomed to talking to children, as she tutored potions students during school breaks. 

"I think he's adapting to goat life a little too well, and I fear he's lost his way home."

  

[Etta Flume]

Etta stared at the woman for a moment, wondering if she making a joke. It was a weird joke, she thought, but a goat husband seemed like a very serious matter to be said so... calmly.

"Can't you... er... find someone to untransfigure him?" Etta asked. If someone could transfigure him, surely someone could reverse it, right?