Juggling Insults Over Flames

[Elijah-Thomas Burke]

Sword swallowing. Pathetic for a wizard.

He walked through the carnival rather unimpressed. The tricks for wizards were juvenile at best. If they were muggles it would have been more impressive. After all, muggles were not capable of transfiguring the sword as they swallowed it. They were not capable of drinking potions to shield their throat from the heat. Even that was somewhat impressive as if such a potion existed he suspect it would taste horrible. Perhaps soon he'd walk past someone eating a pigs heart or something equally shock worthy.

The music. He'd heard better from street performers in London.

The standard should have been higher for there to be a carnival in the wizarding community. Wizards could do so much more than muggles, yet their show was equally pathetic. At least some of them were pleasant to look at. Even if the dancers he had been enjoying earlier had ended their performance and now he was wandering around bored.

Then he saw someone he recognized. With a smile he walked up to Angie with a smile plastered on his face. After all, there was a slim chance she had missed how pathetic this faire was, and he was confident he could make it better. The games could be improved with a well placed spell or two. With a smile he said " Lady Sinnet, how fair art thou? " Figuring that if they were in a carnival he should get in the spirit of dated statements.

Then he chuckled and couldn't resist saying quietly " Sometimes I wonder if the performers can do magic. "

  

[Angie Swan]

Being out the house was the best feeling. After seeing Lysandra the previously at the carnival, she decided to give it a second go. She hadn't paid much attention to the carnival itself, but rather her company and keeping herself from saying the wrong thing. This was a different matter entirely, she was here to actually take a good look at the Carnival. Angie couldn't decide if she was impressed or not yet. As a child she had always been so intrigued by the exotic people and animals, but now, at sixteen, it was not so enticing.

Still, her parents, well her mother, had given her some money to go and spend on High Street and had, as she carried a new parasol in her hands, to the carnival to see what else she could treat herself to. They often had beautiful jewelry at the fair and a new pair of earrings could definitely be in order.

Sixteen, it didn't feel very different from fifteen, but somehow she did feel older. Awaiting this impending baby had put a lot of stress on her. Still, her birthday had only been a couple of days ago and she was determined to make the best of it. Fortunately, her mother had some company this afternoon. Vampire company, so Angie was relieved of her babysitting duties for the a while. It was quite lovely to say the least.

As she wandered through the fair, a familiar voice broke through her thoughts. A smile tugged at the corner of her lips as she turned to find Elijah-Thomas. "Fairing quite well thank you, Mr. Burke. How about yourself?" She twirled her parasol amiably, absentmindedly even. "I was unaware otherwise?" She raised an eyebrow at his question, curious to know what he meant. Of course, the magic could be better at this point.

  

[Elijah-Thomas Burke]

Besides having wasted a few meaningless coins on entering the fair he was fairing well. However seeing Angie certainly made up for the few missing coins he had earlier. Plus even if the performances were pathetic he hoped that the food would be decent. With a smirk he said " It is a lovely day. " then he noticed her parasol and resisted the desire to shake his head.

He had always believed parasols were a bit odd at public events. They were fine to him if people were sitting down, but walking about he'd have to be careful not to be hit with it. Already today he had transfigured one smaller as someone had managed to hit him in the shoulder with it. Of course that had caused some ruckus but he had just left the scene quickly and no one had bothered to follow.

Then he heard her confirm they could do magic. Elijah-Thomas said " Some of them are so pathetic they should take up muggle acts. " As he had to admit many of the muggle acts were more entertaining. One act he did enjoy were the dancers, but that was not a thing you said to a lady such as the one besides him.

He continued " I saw an act once in France where they were more gymnastic and had ribbons moving about. They were all squibs, and more impressive than the ones here. " However looking around he didn't want to complain to much about the scene around him so he said " Did you enjoy your birthday? " Hoping the book he had sent as a present had been well received.

  

[Angie Swan]

It was amusing to Angie at this point that she had been to the fair twice now, meeting up with Lysandra not too long ago and now this afternoon with Elijah, that the conversation kept turning towards muggles. What was it about the carnival that brought about such discussions? She supposed that in all reality the carnival was a muggle-esque affair and certainly muggles had their own kind of festival, which apparently, according to Mr. Burke, were more entertaining than wizarding festivals.

Intrigued by his point and curious to know what he meant, she tilted her head as he explained about a muggle festival. "Really?" Angie was learning quite a bit about muggles as of late, their zoos and now their carnivals. "It would be an interesting sight to see." Certainly, the way he described it sounded like it would a good show. "It must be more impressive because they do it without magic." She supposed anyway. Living without magic would have truly baffled her. She supposed it was downright lucky that she turned out to be magical. Angie knew nothing of her birth parents, but seeing that the parents who raised her were vampires, it was an easier assimilation when they found out she was a witch. "I would like to see one, so I could compare." Her Ravenclaw tendencies were showing themselves and there was nothing she could do about it.

"I did, thank you." It wasn't the same, having her birthday without her father around as he was still on that blasted expansion expedition, but she was hoping he would be home soon, safe and sound. He would make it up to her, surely. "Thank you for the book. I have already started it." Angie soaked up books like they were going out of style, which is probably why Elijah-Thomas had sent her one. She hadn't been expecting a present from anybody other than her parents, but it had been a lovely surprise.

Taking a look around, she was curious to know more about muggle carnivals. "Are there many other differences between the carnivals?" She was honestly wondering about these muggle carnivals now. Not that she really wanted to be be associated with muggles on any account, but they were rather fascinating.

  

[Elijah-Thomas Burke]

He chuckled when she mentioned about it being more impressive because they couldn't do magic. With a smile he said " It's more impressive because they think it is magic half the time. " Seriously if they could see real magic they would realize even people who did magic would not flutter about and waste their time on such acts of triviality.

Hence why it was the people who could hardly do magic that were in the circus.

He smiled happy she enjoyed her birthday. As a girl with a spoiled birthday was one best avoided. Then he smiled when she mentioned the book and said " I thought you might enjoy it. " As one trick he had learned from his uncle was the fine art of guessing things people might like.

Looking around at the carnival he tried to figure out how to compare it to a muggle carnival. He tilted his head towards one of the food carts and said " Oddly the muggle ones always seem hotter, and yet don't run out of food. " Something he found a miracle considering muggles could not just hide food in enlarged magic containers. Then he said " They are louder. The instruments are more string based. "

Then he looked over and said " They also sometimes take it more seriously. Some of the people in this carnival do as well, but there is a definite air of this is what they specialized in and they had other options. " As he looked at the wizarding carnival around him he wondered if this was the people around him's only option.

Probably as quite a few of them were barely adequate at this.

  

[Angie Swan]

Angie looked around the carnival as Elijah-Thomas described some of the similarities and differences. "Oh, I do enjoy the music." She admitted. More string instruments. Ang had always been intrigued by the violin. She rather liked the sound, though playing looked difficult. It made her wonder if her father ever knew how to play. Surely he had to know some kind of instrument, the man had been around for hundreds of years. If she was ever made a vampire, she would put the time into learning more than one instrument. Even if that was not the case, perhaps she should look into getting lessons now. Piano and the harp never interested her, but the violin was so graceful, she could put effort into it now. Music was a nice lady-like thing to do.

"I always wonder how they manage without magic." Surey magic made life easier. Of course, she couldn't use magic outside of school and neither could her parents, but at school everything was so much easier. Angie only had one more year now until she could do magic at home anyway, it wasn't long at all. Losing her magic was something she feared if she was to change into a vampire, but she still had time to think about that.

"More seriously you say?" That was intriguing. Angie had never thought of the carnival as a serious thing. "You mean like they actually put thought into it?" She suppose there was a business and planning portion to the carnival, but she had never put much thought into it. It was a side of the festival that was not clearly seen. What was really more curious was how Elijah-Thomas knew so much about muggle carnivals. "Spent a lot of time at muggle carnivals do you?" She inquired with a quirk of her eyebrow and a hint of a smirk, half-teasing him. He didn't strike her as the kind of person to spend a lot of time associating with muggles. However, Angie had never been a blood purist, just a snob about life in general, so she had never truly looked down on muggles or muggleborn, but if she didn't have to associate with them she wouldn't go out of her way to spend time with them. She would however like to observe them sometime, just to see how they go about their daily lives.