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*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.*
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.*
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Date: 2011-09-25 03:54 am (UTC)*He makes a good show of it. Tapping on the window, he flags over a hassled-looking waiter and has a quick, through-the-door conversation regarding outages and the power company and 'closed for the rest of the day at least.' It's with a small shrug that he returns to Amrita, looking regretful and playing his cards carefully. He's got a very specific target here, but it won't do to put too fine a point on it.*
No luck, they don't even know what's wrong with it. I would suggest my flat, but it's a bit of a hike to Southwark, I'm sorry. Is there anything else around here?
*There isn't. He's already checked into that.*
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Date: 2011-09-25 04:02 am (UTC)Don't be ridiculous. We'll go to the flat, it's only just 'round the corner. Do you mind?
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Date: 2011-09-25 08:00 am (UTC)Oh - no, Amrita, I'd hate to impose -
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Date: 2011-09-25 03:35 pm (UTC)Psh. It's very close. You can meet the bar.
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Date: 2011-09-25 03:57 pm (UTC)- Meet the what?
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Date: 2011-09-25 04:05 pm (UTC)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?
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Date: 2011-09-25 04:09 pm (UTC)*He holds it up a bit; with his cuffs rolled back to the elbow, the bandage is plainly visible.*
I had a bit of a go at it this time but it's not too bad. And other than that I've been well. Hazel's good, too. You?
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Date: 2011-09-25 04:26 pm (UTC)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.*
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Date: 2011-09-25 04:36 pm (UTC)I do, it's just not fool-proof. I don't handle restraints very well, I'm afraid, I nearly broke my own neck once as a child. Usually the alternative works out, though, this is as bad as it ever gets these days.
*Sirius can't very well pin him to the floor the entire night - appealing as that prospect might be under other circumstances - and accidents happen. This month he'd just gotten distracted from play-fighting and (as usual) frustrated at the lack of exits. He'd been calmer back when they'd been able to roam free; the wolf doesn't respond well to captivity, and it's more of a constant struggle to keep it occupied in close quarters. Sirius's presence still helps him keep some of his sanity, but it can't undo the drive to get out, to run, to hunt.
He smiles, dryly, and fingers the fastening on the bandage gently.*
Believe me, I've had worse.
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Date: 2011-09-25 04:58 pm (UTC)*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?
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Date: 2011-09-25 05:01 pm (UTC)Agonizing. And they have no idea.
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Date: 2011-09-25 05:21 pm (UTC)*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.
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Date: 2011-09-25 05:29 pm (UTC)Shaking off the pensiveness and refocusing on the job at hand, he follows Amrita into the flat - if you can even call something this palatial a flat - and takes it all in as innocently as possible.*
It's - lovely, Amrita, really, this is beautiful.
*And such a very far cry from the flat on Borough High Street, with its cracked walls and old wooden floors and draughts. It's home, and it's pleasantly unpretentious, and he loves it, but he's never felt the class difference between them quite so acutely as now.*
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Date: 2011-09-25 05:55 pm (UTC)*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?
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Date: 2011-09-25 07:50 pm (UTC)Ah - darjeeling, please, if you have it.
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Date: 2011-09-25 08:16 pm (UTC)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?
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Date: 2011-09-25 08:32 pm (UTC)She seems to think so. It was all a bit of a whirlwind - I was just at the market, you know, the open-air one by my old flat, and she tripped over a loose paving stone and dropped her shopping. Oranges everywhere, eggs broken, it was a right mess, and I happened to be passing and helped her, and - well.
*He puts on a small smile, trying to draw on real memories to make it look convincing - the nights spent up up in the Astronomy Tower with Padfoot, out of bed long after hours just to have a bit of time alone together. Or the smiles across the Gryffindor table at breakfast, layers of hidden meanings in them that everyone else was oblivious to, or the night of his eighteenth birthday, in the library - they were purely, truly happy memories, and good fuel for faking newly-in-love. Back at Hogwarts, the end of seventh year when they'd just finally figured things out and the war hadn't consumed their lives yet, when it was all stolen kisses and muffled laughter and tangled sheets on narrow beds. Remus wouldn't trade what they have now for anything - they're so solid, now, so steady and it's safe and it's home - but there's no denying that things were simpler, before. Happiness without the edge of fear. He tries to draw on that.*
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Date: 2011-09-25 08:48 pm (UTC)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--
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Date: 2011-09-25 08:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-09-25 09:16 pm (UTC)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--?
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Date: 2011-09-25 09:23 pm (UTC)Shutting the drawer gently, he moves onto the next, setting his teacup down to open two at once this time. As long as he can hear movement in the kitchen, he reasons, he's fine.*
A bit out, yes, in Croydon.
*Sufficiently pedestrian and boring and lower-middle-class. He hopes.*
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Date: 2011-09-25 09:39 pm (UTC)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!
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Date: 2011-09-25 09:44 pm (UTC)No, it's quite alright - and we do, there's a toaster and a blender and a coffee maker and everything. She can't very well do without them, I mean, so -
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Date: 2011-09-25 09:50 pm (UTC)For her part, Amrita is still rummaging, muttering to herself in a low undertone.*
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Date: 2011-09-25 09:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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