[identity profile] looneyloopy.livejournal.com posting in [community profile] bait_backup
*Electricity is a funny thing. It can do so much, and yet it's so very easy to disrupt. Such are the woes of the proprietors of Maurice's, an upscale café that tries to look more edgy than fancy, and fails. It can't quite shake the air of snobbery infecting the area, the taint of We-Have-Too-Much-Money. Maybe it's the silk ascots; maybe it's the disproportionate number of Italian shoes. At any rate, no one thinks to notice the young man slipping out of the alley next to the building, in his new wingtips and old waistcoat, his button-down a bit rumpled and his trousers mended here and there. By the time anyone notices the breaker box on the back wall sparking and smoking, he's vanished into the crowds.

He takes the long way 'round back through some side-streets, timing it so that he walks up to Maurice's - again - about five minutes after he's agreed to meet Amrita there. Perfectly late, perfectly nonchalant, as he strolls up to the café, pretending to be unaware of the frustrated owners and the 'closed for maintenance' sign now hanging on the door.*



Date: 2011-09-25 04:02 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cellarandmoon.livejournal.com
*She fiddles a little awkwardly with her purse as Remus talks to the waiter, and by the time he turns around she's already made up her mind. It'll be fine; the flat is warded and safe and Evan is out so there's nobody to surprise. Anyway, she isn't too keen on meeting Mrs. Lupin The Muggle, whoever-she-is, and she knows Evan wouldn't be all that keen on it, either--*

Don't be ridiculous. We'll go to the flat, it's only just 'round the corner. Do you mind?

Date: 2011-09-25 03:35 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cellarandmoon.livejournal.com
*But she's already walking, with a sisterly little tug at his sleeve so that he'll follow her.*

Psh. It's very close. You can meet the bar.

Date: 2011-09-25 04:05 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cellarandmoon.livejournal.com
The bar. It's very nice, you'll see. And I can show you that book I was telling you about, that plays music for you as you read-

It's not far, just there, see?

*She points at the rather majestic building they're heading towards. It hails from when factories were built more like temples or castles--but it obviously hasn't been a factory in quite some time.*

And how've you been?

Date: 2011-09-25 04:26 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cellarandmoon.livejournal.com
*At once, she makes a small and sympathetic little noise, her brow creasing. Perhaps he hasn't got a contraption like the one she once used--and if his wife, Hazel apparently, is a Muggle she can't be any use at all helping him. It hadn't been often that her own measures had failed, but she remembers vividly what it's like to wake up bleeding and gashed open from hip to knee.*

Oh, how awful. Don't you have a thing you can use, stop yourself biting?

It's just up here.

*They're in the building, now, and she leads him into a bronze-latticed lift much like the one they shared the day they met.*

Date: 2011-09-25 04:58 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cellarandmoon.livejournal.com
I believe it. I'm a mess all down my side here, and it only failed once or twice when I was younger. I've always used it, since, you know. It cut down on most of the, ah, messier bits. So I'd stay presentable. I only really would bounce off the walls, and that isn't so bad, considering.

*Amrita is very conspicuously avoiding the word muzzle; still, it's easier to talk about when she's looking ahead at the lift shaft crawling evenly downwards on the other side of the bronze lattice. She speaks softly, now, almost inaudible over the clanking of the old-fashioned lift.*

It's difficult, isn't it, for the wolf be held back from what it's meant to do?

Date: 2011-09-25 05:21 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cellarandmoon.livejournal.com
Oh, none at all. Evan's just wonderful. He does so much. But-

*But fascination and solicitousness and love and generosity don't quite add up to a full understanding, either. It's good to have Remus back.*

Ah, here we are.

*There's no complicated wandwork, no tell, no glow or chime or showy magical flourishes in the way she undoes the wards to the flat: they are truly top-of-the-line, and that shows in the way it doesn't show. She simply presses her right palm flat to the door and fits the key into the lock with her left hand. It was clumsy, at first--damned Evan and his cack-handed apasavya way of doing things--but now it's second nature to her. The door opens willingly, and she leads him inside.*

And here's home.

Date: 2011-09-25 05:55 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cellarandmoon.livejournal.com
It's home, is all.

*She shrugs, a little awkwardly. And of course to Amrita, now, it is. But the first time she'd woken up here it'd been blinding and startling and alien: high ceilings and a wall of windows and an awful lot of white, and peculiar art and artifacts everywhere--never mind how many times her little room at the Leaky could fit into it.

And it hasn't changed much since then: a few more bookshelves by a little chair for her to read in, an idol in one little nook that's probably the brightest thing in the room, and a circle of carpet that's almost-imperceptibly worn. And of course there's a handsome iron hook suspended from the ceiling, holding only a blameless plant in a hanging pot.

She drops her purse onto a table and crosses the room to the bar.*

Make yourself at home, now. It can get you just about anything--it actually made me coffee once but I was awfully upset, don't know if a repeat performance is in the cards--Iced tea for me, I think, please, with cardamom--

Remus?

Date: 2011-09-25 08:16 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cellarandmoon.livejournal.com
*The bar clinks and chatters into activity before she's even spoken to it, and it produces a gently steaming cup of flawless tea--evidently anxious to make a good impression on this new friend of Amrita's.*

That was fast. Bit of milk and sugar, isn't it?

*She returns and extends the cup and saucer to Remus with the easy and workmanlike grace of someone who's served for a living--you can take the girl out of the pub, but--and settles into an armchair.

For all her blatant dismissal of his Muggle wife, Amrita's still obnoxiously lovesick. She can't help asking.*

You'll have to tell me how you and Hazel met. Was it very very romantic?

Date: 2011-09-25 08:48 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cellarandmoon.livejournal.com
*She sees it ever so vividly: oranges rolling everywhere on the cobblestones and poor hapless Hazel-the-Muggle (a pretty if slightly dumpy brunette, in Amrita's mind) fretting all over the place. And Remus, of course, to the rescue. The story is enough, but the little smile he's wearing clinches it, and Amrita lights up like a Christmas tree, right on cue.*

That's just wonderful. Ever the white-knight, I could just die.


I don't know about you but I'm a bit peckish, I was sort of counting on a pastry or two from Maurice's. Let me get us a little something, we've got fruit and scones and things--won't be a second--

Date: 2011-09-25 09:16 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cellarandmoon.livejournal.com
*The credenza gives a little mutinous creak at his touch, seems to twitch a bit, but that's all. The drawer would certainly have bitten, or worse, if anything incriminating was in the drawer--but it contains only a pair of smooth and intricately-carved wands.*

So do you have a flat together?

*Amrita didn't do much more than help out with kitchen prep at the Leaky--the cook was an ancient and horrid woman she was obliged to call Miss Fletcher who was in the habit of complaining loudly about 'it' touching things when Tom wasn't around. But she remembers some, and makes short work and neat slices of a few nectarines and tangellas. But that won't do on its own, so she keeps on rummaging and calls over to Remus.*

In London, or--?

Date: 2011-09-25 09:39 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cellarandmoon.livejournal.com
*The first drawer opens smoothly, revealing a dozen or so more wands, each carved and inlaid with infinitesmal chips of mirror. But it appears the credenza's had enough, because the next refuses to open at all. The wood gives another long creak, and it sounds more like a growl than anything else.*

Lovely. Did you have a housewarming? Goodness, I've really missed so much. Do you have all sorts of Muggle things in the kitchen?

*She's babbling, but a charming little fruit plate has taken shape, and the scones are busy toasting themselves, and where is the chocolate--*

I won't be a second, sorry!

Date: 2011-09-25 09:50 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] cellarandmoon.livejournal.com
*The drawer opens, almost too-obediently--and then it snaps abruptly (and silently) shut, with sharp brass teeth that seem to have come out of nowhere.

For her part, Amrita is still rummaging, muttering to herself in a low undertone.*

(no subject)

From: [identity profile] cellarandmoon.livejournal.com - Date: 2011-09-25 09:57 pm (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

From: [identity profile] cellarandmoon.livejournal.com - Date: 2011-09-25 10:05 pm (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

From: [identity profile] cellarandmoon.livejournal.com - Date: 2011-09-25 10:31 pm (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

From: [identity profile] cellarandmoon.livejournal.com - Date: 2011-09-25 11:30 pm (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

From: [identity profile] cellarandmoon.livejournal.com - Date: 2011-09-26 10:48 pm (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

From: [identity profile] cellarandmoon.livejournal.com - Date: 2011-09-28 01:18 am (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

From: [identity profile] cellarandmoon.livejournal.com - Date: 2011-09-28 01:41 am (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

From: [identity profile] cellarandmoon.livejournal.com - Date: 2011-09-28 02:16 am (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

From: [identity profile] cellarandmoon.livejournal.com - Date: 2011-09-28 02:31 am (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

From: [identity profile] dapperdeath.livejournal.com - Date: 2011-09-28 03:08 am (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

From: [identity profile] cellarandmoon.livejournal.com - Date: 2011-09-28 03:20 am (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

From: [identity profile] dapperdeath.livejournal.com - Date: 2011-09-28 03:24 am (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

From: [identity profile] cellarandmoon.livejournal.com - Date: 2011-09-28 03:37 pm (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

From: [identity profile] dapperdeath.livejournal.com - Date: 2011-09-28 03:46 pm (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

From: [identity profile] cellarandmoon.livejournal.com - Date: 2011-09-28 04:02 pm (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

From: [identity profile] dapperdeath.livejournal.com - Date: 2011-09-28 05:16 pm (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

From: [identity profile] cellarandmoon.livejournal.com - Date: 2011-09-28 05:36 pm (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

From: [identity profile] dapperdeath.livejournal.com - Date: 2011-09-28 06:18 pm (UTC) - Expand

Profile

bait_backup: (Default)
Bait Backup

July 2011

S M T W T F S
      1 2
34 5 6 78 9
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31      

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 10th, 2025 06:19 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios