25th April, 1888 — just outside the Painted Lady
Elias Grimstone

Betsy was not a baker simply for the sake of paying her way in the world. She considered a day in which she didn't get blasted in the face by hot air as she plucked something from the oven at just the right moment an entirely wasted one and despite her professional situation being everything she had wanted it to be she was not above looking for opportunities wherever they presented themselves. And so, armed with a fresh batch of her newest invention - which, as Le pointed out, bore a striking resemblance to jam tarts but were most emphatically not in Betsy's opinion - she had been scouting for somewhere she could be a little more experimental. 

As it turned out Madame Lévesque had been after something considerably more experimental being used as filling than her combination of pear jam and ginger and after a truly terrifying conversation Betsy had excused herself and left the shop, cheeks burning and half-convinced she had dreamed the last ten minutes. She had thought herself relatively worldly, certainly not an innocent at any rate, but all the same...

Behind her she heard a door open and, convinced she was being followed by the woman inside and would never be seen again if she was caught, Betsy panicked and shot towards the first person she saw and linked her arm through his, whispering desperately: 

"Please pretend you know me. I'm ever so worried she's going to follow me home!"

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   Bella Scrimgeour

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MJ is a beautiful wizard

Elias had been planning on rounding off his errands by stopping by the Three Broomsticks, which was his usual home-from-home when he needed a change of scenery from the workshop. Besides, even the walk down the High Street was good for the soul. It might not exactly be a tranquil country ramble, but he was ambling at as relaxed a pace as any, leaving plenty of time to idly observe shop windows and the passers-by.

All that said, he still hadn't seen her coming: suddenly, all he knew was that a blonde was grasping hold of him by his arm. Elias' gaze slid sideways, utterly perplexed, and it took a double-take to register both her identity and what she'd said in a panicked whisper.

"I -" do know you, Elias had started to say, just as perplexed - she was Le's wife's sister, or else looked startlingly like that Betsy Cooper - but swiftly decided that was not the most pressing element, here. He mustered up a broad sort of smile for her as if they'd planned to meet here, for the benefit of her hasty plan, and then glanced over his shoulder at where, presumably, she'd come from. The Painted Lady, it looked like. He hadn't seen who'd last come in or out, and wouldn't know who he was even looking for, but he had heard the jingle of the bell, which was enough to see him move to fall into step with her in any opposite direction. "Wait," Elias murmured back in a low tone, though his creased brow betrayed his continued confusion. "Who's going to follow you home?" What kind of weirdos precisely did one encounter in fancy teashops? (He couldn't begin to imagine.)

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   Elladora Black

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Once they were sufficiently far away from the entrance to the tea shop, or at least had covered enough distance together that Betsy didn't think anybody would come after her and rip her away from her put-upon knight she allowed herself to take a breath and properly look at the gentleman she had accosted. He was familiar, surprisingly enough, and she laughed in bemused delight when she realised her mistake. Still, she didn't know him well so she doubted it was a faux pas he would hold against her. She had been in distress after all!

"It does you credit that you don't know I'd say," she replied with a grin, getting used to their difference in height as they walked. She was shorter than almost everybody so it barely bothered her anymore.

"It's Mr Grimstone isn't it? Le's friend?"

He was the broomaker if memory serves. She vaguely recalled Le talking about the man's amazing creations and the intricacies being utterly lost of her - she had never been on a broom in her life, much to her embarrassment whenever she was confronted with how odd that made her in the eyes of most of their kind.

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   Elias Grimstone

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MJ is a beautiful wizard

He huffed a laugh in relief at the point at which she started seeming more relaxed, though he still didn't have any idea what was going on. Her remark didn't entirely explain it either. (It might sink in later, perhaps. He'd heard about a certain locale on the High Street, but visited there as little as he visited the flouncy teashop's front, which was to say, just about never. At some point he'd connect the dots.)

Miss Cooper had connected some dots of her own, too. He grinned, nodding in response as they walked (a slower stroll now that they seemed to have gotten away unmolested, and also because if he was walking arm-in-arm with someone of her stature, he didn't want to start accidentally dragging her along). "Mm, that's me," he affirmed brightly, and was rather chuffed to be known as Le's friend rather than his profession for once. Not that he didn't like his profession, obviously. Just. It made a change. "And you're his sister-in-law," he returned, grinning again. She'd been living with them, last he'd heard, though now that Le was married and a father to boot, Elias didn't see half as much of him as he'd used to, so he may well be behind the times.

"So what were you doing there?" He asked with a twitch of amusement at the corner of his mouth, wondering what sort of trouble she was getting into these days.

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With a final glance over her shoulder, feeling much more secure now that she had distance and a protector in between her and the terrifying madam, Betsy was rather struck by how unremarkable it looked on the outside which was, she supposed, rather the point. It wouldn’t be able to ply its trade if too many people knew what it was and Betsy wasn’t sure if she found the notion even more worrying or slightly impressive. They were businesswomen of a sort too she supposed, and everybody had to earn a living.

“Looking for somewhere to sell my wares,” she quipped with exaggerated eyes and a playful smile, descending quickly into giggles when she realised that he didn’t appear to know what the place was at all. It was possible he was trying to save her blushes, which was nice of him though completely unnecessary, but if he didn’t then he was a rare man indeed.

Or that particular brothel was out of his price range. Either way.

“These,” she added, lifting the box she had been carrying under her free arm and opening the lid with a flourish. “Voila! Jam tarts.” Tarts being even more appropriate than she ever could have imagined all things considered.

  

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MJ is a beautiful wizard

Honestly, it still had not clicked, which left Elias in continued bemusement with this whole encounter. Although, as bemusement was what they had started off with, he could hardly call his expectations upset.

Besides, this was a feeling he was quite accustomed to, in most of his life. Her answer was similarly cryptic, but her giggling and general silliness saw him crack into chuckling anyway. There was an inkling niggling at him somewhere in the back of his head, but for the moment Elias wrote this off and merely shrugged. Women were entirely bizarre.

She revealed the box of jam tarts just then, which did make more sense. Elias grinned down at them, impressed. “Oh yes, you’re the baker,” Elias remembered, feeling rather jealous of Le, if that meant his house in Pennyworth was filled with the fresh scent of baking every day of the week. Between him and Tony, they could just about do jam on toast.

“Well, I’m surprised they didn’t want them,” he returned, shaking his head.

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Either he had finally realised what The Painted Lady really was or else Mr Grimstone was just laughing along at her jokes. She certainly hoped it was the latter: she didn’t know him well but Mr Grimstone was a handsome man and she would be pleased if he thought well enough of her to bother pretending.

“Their loss is your gain I suppose,” she replied with a grin, waving the box under his nose playfully. She should take them home really, either save her labours for her family or try her best to find somewhere else that would buy them off her, but she would much rather see someone enjoy them in front of her. “You have to eat one to make me appreciated, it’s only polite,” she told him solemnly.

  

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MJ is a beautiful wizard

He grinned a bit sheepishly as she waved the box towards him, not wanting her to think he'd been angling for one. Not that he didn't want one, either, but the problem was it was only polite of Miss Cooper to offer, whether or not he accepted. And she'd been trying to sell them, she said, and he was fairly certain she'd be able to find someone else to take them in an instant.

"Well, they look excellent, obviously," Elias said - in honest appreciation - as he dithered about with his free hand about whether to take one or not. "But you oughtn't waste one on me," he added, grinning more crookedly, "I'll eat anything."

As if to make that clear, his stomach rumbled in agreement.

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Oh Merlin, he was one of those men that needed to be talked into things. How on earth did she keep finding these young men that required her to lead them into anything, and would not simply take? Perhaps she ought to have tried the men at the tea shop after all – at least they were probably easier to persuade!

“Then start with these,” Betsy said with fond exasperation and a wide grin, rattling the tin in front of his face again. “Honestly I’ll only eat them myself or give them to Le and neither of us would look especially fetching if we became fat!”

Plus it would be a nightmare to let out all her clothes and she had no interest in wasting her time doing that. “You can take me for a broom ride to make it up to me if it makes you feel better.”

  

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MJ is a beautiful wizard

“I doubt it’d help me much either,” Elias countered, feebly feigning protest, “but anything to spare you and Le, I suppose.” He rolled his eyes, and laughed, and took a tart obligingly. What a bastard, that Le, marrying into a family of pretty, tart-baking blondes who wouldn’t take no for an answer.

He highly doubted a few tarts would have any ill effects on her figure or make her any less fetching, but.

“You know, it would,” Elias added definitively, at her suggestion about broom rides. He fancied she was making fun of him more than anything, but even so - it wasn’t as though he’d have objections. He raised an eyebrow, pausing in lifting the tart to his mouth to grin. “Do you like flying?”  

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Inevitably Betsy felt herself begin to blush, wondering how she could respond to the question, whilst also being irritated that she had brought it on herself. She could flirt with the best of them as long as she was on her own terms, but she hated feeling ill-informed or out of her depths, and truthfully she had never been on a broomstick in her life. She had seen them of course, at the Quidditch pitches and on Bank Holidays when the display teams performed their special arrangements, but she had never been in the air herself.

No, her life had been distinctly without that freedom.

“I wouldn’t know,” she admitted with a wry smile. “I’ve only ever used a broom for that archaic ritual we ladies call sweeping.”

  

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MJ is a beautiful wizard

Something in her easy demeanour altered a little, at that, and for a moment Elias couldn't quite work out what he'd said wrong. But, oh. Not that a great proportion of Young Ladies cared to fly anywhere, let alone play quidditch, but first years at Hogwarts managed to learn most of the basics.

(He couldn't imagine what would have become of his life if he hadn't felt that rickety school broom leap into his hand in that first flying lesson. Who would he be?)

He gave a faint chuckle at her remark, though felt a little sheepish about it - and so swept away the sheepishness with a wave of daftly exaggerated enthusiasm. "Oh, well - well then, you've done it now, Miss Cooper, you've left me no choice! You'll have to try flying - I'll have to teach you. Even if you hate it," - and he would cross the despair of that bridge if he came to it - "you'll be better than Le, I tell you that." He grinned crookedly. Le was hopeless on a broom.  

All that said, he wasn't going to force her at wandpoint to get on a broom if she didn't care to, so he stopped himself from going on by taking a great bite out of the tart, chewing on it while he waited for her response. "This is delicious, by the way," he added, brushing a crumb off the corner of his mouth before he took another bite.

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Betsy giggled at the offer, relieved by it even if nothing ever came from it. She had been far too worried that he would think less of her because of her ignorance on a subject that was his life’s work and for whatever reason, though she barely knew him really, she didn’t care for the idea of him disliking her for any reason. He was such a nice man, and a handsome one too – she wasn’t blind! – so he was certainly somebody she wanted to keep on the good side of even if it was only for Le’s sake.

“I know, but thank you,” she replied offhandedly with a confident smile. “This I’m good at. You do realise if you take me flying I’ll be clinging to you the entire time?”

It did not occur to her to think that perhaps they could just go a few feet off the ground. No, she immediately envisioned flying with the wind whipping across her face and for that to happen she would need Mr Grimstone’s solid body to hold on to.

  

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MJ is a beautiful wizard

Elias laughed between mouthfuls. He couldn't tell whether her next remark was - well, just that, an honest warning, or perhaps whether it was something rather more tongue-in-cheek, but... Suffice it to say, nothing in that description sounded altogether too dire.

"Well, naturally," Elias uttered, his tone largely teasing but the grin he cast her suggesting that he was not at all fazed. If she were genuinely worried about getting off the ground, there was nothing preventing it from being a gentle lesson - and Merlin, she needn't think herself obligated to learn at all - but Miss Cooper didn't give him the impression that she was short on daring. Perhaps she had not been a Gryffindor in name, but she certainly seemed to have the mettle. "It would do us no good to have you falling off in the first minute, after all, would it?" He said, still grinning. (Though that much was true. If anything went awry, he didn't much fancy having Vic Cooper beating him over the head with a broomstick.)

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Flirting came much more naturally to Betsy than behaving did; her eyes flashed with instinctive pleasure at his remark, recognising it for the opening it was and she turned her body towards him as they walked, almost, but not quite, casually enough to brush against his side. She meant no harm, but pickings were remarkably slim in Hogsmeade and Mr Grimstone was rather more handsome than Vic had led her to believe!

“You’ll just have to hold me very tightly, won’t you?”

She offered him another smile, this one with a definite hint of suggestion, but flirt she might be, Betsy was far from stupid and having made herself known she took a smooth step away, still smiling and feeling rather elated.

“I’m this way,” she nodded down a side-street, pleased to see it mostly deserted for once as she did not especially fancy having to ignore catcalls as she took her leave of Mr Grimstone. As much as was possible, she would quite like him to think well of her. “Thank you for rescuing me.”

  

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MJ is a beautiful wizard

If there hadn't been any intended suggestion before it was unequivocal now, between her angling of herself towards him, the answer that told him she knew just what he'd been envisioning, and a smile that was entirely dazzling.

Elias' grin got considerably more goofy at this turn of events. "My pleasure," he returned; it had been, rather. He'd lucked out pretty excellently, for a surprise detour to his day - free jam tarts and a charming blonde on his arm, which felt like more than he had ever earnt without trying. Easy come, easy go, though: best not read too much into it. She was, after all, his best friend's younger sister-in-law... and there was something about the gleam in Betsy Cooper's eye that seemed to spell trouble. He chuckled at her again, all the same. "Anyway, I'm glad you made it back safe."

In truth, she seemed like a young lady who could take care of herself, whatever danger she had made her hasty escape from earlier on the High Street. Elias had just raised his hand in a half-wave goodbye as he watched her take her leave, when a fact suddenly fell into place. Oh, heck. In an instant, everything she'd said earlier made utter sense, and Elias' eyes widened by a mile at his own obliviousness - The Painted Lady.

Oh.

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