May 3rd, 1888 — A High Street Store

Ben had been keeping something of a low profile since the debacle at the Ministry, but he'd been forced to leave the house today on a business matter — the business being how badly he needed a change of clothes after several days at the house he almost never stayed in. It wasn't as though he'd been doing anything particularly exerting at the Wellingtonshire house, but even so, one couldn't wear the same clothes three days in a row, and he'd already been going on two when he'd been let out of the Ministry holding cell. The clothes he had left over at the Crouch house were all old and out of fashion, and while it was hardly as though he had anyone to impress, Ben had gone out to fetch some fresh things from his room at Excalibur's just so that he could at least feel like himself again.

He debated whether or not he needed to pack a bag — he didn't really plan on staying much longer, no matter what was going on with Miss Scrimgeour and her father and her pretend-mysterious disappearance. Still, it'd be easy enough to unpack it again when he came back, he figured. With a fresh set of clothes on his back and several more in a bag he'd thrown over his shoulders, then, he had headed back towards Wellingtonshire — until he saw her through a shop window.

Suddenly, Ben was seeing red. He made his way into the shop she was in without even bothering to determine which one it was and whether he had any valid reason to be seen inside of it, then made a beeline towards Miss Scrimgeour. "Hey," he said hotly, though he at least had the presence of mind to keep his voice relatively low to avoid attracting the attention of other customers. "Where the hell have you been?"

Araminta Scrimgeour

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   Bella Scrimgeour

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Lately, Bella’s disappearance has been the talk of the town. Frequent whispers from fellow debutantes and Bella’s face being in the cover of the same useless tabloid that ruined the peace in her home. But despite her twins name being all over the place the family had no lead on where Bella was.

It was like her first disappearance all over again.

Araminta was hesitant to go out once again. Being mistaken for her twin wasn’t uncommon to her since eleven. Apart from their accent and fashion style, it was really only their family who could distinguish who was whom. Still, it was hard to get used to being called ‘Bella’. Especially now that the girl was missing, who knows what sort of uncomfortable questions she had to face. She already had to deal with Miss Lacey a few days before.

Even as they walked through the streets she could feel the curious glances at her and her chaperone. But luckily, no one had approached her just yet.

Minty entered bookshop in hopes of finding books that would distract her from the drama at home for the next few days. Her chaperone had left her to look for something as she browsed the new released novels displayed.

Focused on the books, she hadn’t notice the man making his way towards her until he spoke to her angrily.  “Um… I was at home?” She offered hesitantly with a confused look. Was this man mistaking her for someone else? She knew she hadn’t been out for days but she didn’t think she would deserve to be questioned harshly.

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   Reuben Crouch

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- She is the identical twin of Bella Scrimgeour. Your character might mistake her for her twin -

Home was, all things considered, perhaps the least satisfying answer she could have given. Nevermind that he didn't know where 'home' was, it also didn't answer any of the questions that had arisen over the past few days. What had happened with her father that had led her to go full radio silence when she had specifically said she was planning to write him? And the two letters he'd gotten from her over the past two days were only more infuriatingly vague — not to mention that they gave off a sort of crime noir feel that Ben couldn't help but think was intentionally melodramatic on her part.

"Without an owl?" he retorted sourly; even if she had been at home, she could have written. That would have saved him a lot of trouble, and a damned arrest.

"Look, I'm sure you're having the time of your life over here pretending to be the heroine in some mystery novel," he said with a derisive gesture towards the shelf of nearby books (he had not actually spared them enough of a glance to know what kind of books they were, but it hardly mattered). "But I was actually worried about you, for Merlin's sake."

Stupidly and unnecessarily, as it turned out; she was quite clearly safe and sound, and able to go cavorting around bookstores.

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   Araminta Scrimgeour [Meeka[, Bella Scrimgeour

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Araminta noticed how displeased he was with her answer. What was he expecting him to tell her? That she went on a trip while her sister was missing?! If this man was informed with the news, he should know that she had the right to stay at home while the investigation for Bella was on-going.

Who was this odd man and why was he acting so close to her? She was scandalized on how callous he was with the way he spoke to her. And with the way he dressed, she expected him to be more…polite.

It was so confusing. “I don’t understand, sir” The man looked so sure that he was looking for her that she somehow believed that he knew her. But she was too young to have a failing memory.She looked at him, trying to remember where they met or at least conjure up his name. But she really didn’t know who he was or what their relationship was.

“I don’t even know you, so if you would excuse me .” she finally said, hoping that he would scurry and bother another young lady. She turned her back at him and resumed to look at the books.

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- She is the identical twin of Bella Scrimgeour. Your character might mistake her for her twin -

If she'd given him this kind of treatment after the first rumor had started circulating between the two of them, he would have understood, and he wouldn't have held it against her. He would have been slightly more miffed if she'd opted to try and cut him out of her life and pretend they'd never met after Ireland, since going there in the first place (and most of the things that had happened while there) had been her idea, but even then, he wouldn't have made much of a fuss about it. Young women had to look after their reputations, and sometimes (most times) the best way to do that was to stay far, far away from Reuben Crouch.

But she hadn't tried to save face and act all proper back when it could have made any sort of difference, and now the damage was done. Rumors and tabloid magazines aside, her face had been on the front page of the Prophet yesterday; it didn't get much worse than that, as far as debutantes were concerned. More to the point for Ben, though, she was taking this approach after stringing him along for weeks after their trip to Ireland, trying to to get her invested in the drama of her life and then literally vanishing when he finally did get invested enough to do something about it.

"Oh, so that's how you want to play this?" he asked hotly. She'd turned away, but he stormed over to the other side of the book display in order to be in front of her once more and leaned on it with an aggressive scowl. "It's a little late to go all prim and proper now," he pointed out dryly. "It's not as though you're fooling anyone."

  

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“I am serious! Do I look like I'm playing with you!” She huffed. Araminta didn’t know why this man was so insistent on pursuing her. She had enough of being asked or spoken to so rudely in public. If this was how she was always going to be treated in public like this then she wanted her sister back.

Now he was questioning her character. How dare he?! As far as everyone could tell, she was the refined and better of the twins and she prided herself for that. The worst that she has probably done was to step on a gentleman’s foot during a waltz in the Hogwarts Coming Out.  

Then it hit her. Of course. Of course, he meant Bella. What he was rambling made sense now if she put it that way. “If you’re talking about improper, then you must be looking for my twin, not me.” That sounded like an insult to Bella but it was the obvious truth.  Knowing the man was friends with Bella made her disappointed at her sister for fraternizing with a rude man like him.“I think you’ve read the prophet. She is missing and we haven’t heard a single word from her.” She added grimly as her worries for her twin returned.

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   Bella Scrimgeour

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- She is the identical twin of Bella Scrimgeour. Your character might mistake her for her twin -

"I wouldn't have cared if you'd cut me out the first time," he continued, talking right over her declaration that she was serious. He didn't have the patience to mess around with whatever charade she was putting up, and he was honestly surprised that she thought there was anything to be gained by pretending they didn't know each other now, even if they were in a rather public place. What was she worried about, that there would be more serious rumors about the two of them than the possibility of their eloping? "But you dragged me in to all this, with all your shady cryptic letters, and then —"

He was about to launch in to and then I got fucking arrested when he heard the word twin, and abruptly stopped. Oh. He hadn't known Miss Scrimgeour had a twin sister — or wait, maybe he had. It was ringing a very vague bell, now that the evidence of the relation was standing in front of him, and he thought maybe she'd told him something to that effect when they'd been drinking together at the Celtic Street Fair, but he hadn't thought it an important enough detail to commit to memory at the time. That fact certainly put this conversation in a very different light. Now that he was looking at her (really looking) it seemed obvious that she didn't recognize him, no matter how much she might look like his Miss Scrimgeour.

The knowledge that he'd mistaken her identity was enough to make his cheeks color slightly red, but it wasn't enough to entirely put him off his anger at the whole situation. "Yeah, whatever," he mumbled irately. "Missing my — foot," he said — my ass would have been his choice of phrases, but at the last minute his misplaced but still present sense of propriety had caused him to rethink swearing in front of a lady he'd never met. Not that he stood much chance of being able to make a good impression at this point, nor that he particularly cared to — he'd had enough trouble with Scrimgeour girls recently to want to go entangling himself with another one. "Hiding is more like it — and probably enjoying every second she gets in the spotlight," he continued bitterly.

  

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Her position is complicated, you wouldn’t know why she went into hiding, she thought as the man talked. Araminta was about to defend her sister when she decided not to. She didn’t know how close he was supposed to be with her twin and she was scared of saying any information that might ruin her, her brother and most especially her father, the man who tortured her other daughter. She couldn’t ruin their family. No, not with her own hands.

She decided to focus on the fact that he mentioned letters form her sister.“Bella has written to you?! When?” That would mean she was alive and well – or at least well enough to write. “What has she told you? Has she mentioned where she is staying?” She rambled excitedly. There was hope of finally seeing Bella. Araminta noticed how she bombarded the man who was still pissed off and apologized immediately “Oh, I’m sorry. It’s just I have been so worried about her. I promise I won’t say a word to anyone about these cryptic letters.” She apologized, more calmly. Araminta hoped that it would be enough to convince the man to tell her more about their correspondence.

If Bella was confident enough to send letters to this man then, was he the rumored lover that Witch Weekly mentioned. “Would you happen to be Mr. Rueben Crouch?” She asked hesitantly with her voice slightly lowered. If he was really Mr Crouch then that crosses out the possibility that she had eloped unless she was seeing other men.

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- She is the identical twin of Bella Scrimgeour. Your character might mistake her for her twin -

Ben wondered as the girl more or less exploded into questions whether it had been wise to say anything. The whole mess with Miss Scrimgeour was about as clear as mud at this point, but one thing he did know with reasonable confidence was that she had run away from her family. They'd reported her missing, after all — though Reuben was inclined to think that their delay in having done so meant that they had probably done something to spark this change, rather than the little Rebel having just decided of her own volition that she wanted to run off and cause trouble. There was something going on, and he still had no idea what it was — and despite his best intentions, it seemed he'd gone and gotten himself right in the middle of it once again.

It was too late to back out, too, because she'd just connected the dots and figured out his name — not that he'd been taking any great pains to be subtle about it. No point in denying the obvious, he figured, so he merely shrugged moodily. "The one and only," he admitted.

Whatever was going on with the Rebel and her family wasn't any of his concern, though — or maybe it was, but he wasn't confident enough that he knew what was going on to go sticking his neck out for her again. That being said, he also didn't want to throw her to the wolves by saying something she didn't want known before he knew what was happening. What a mess.

"She didn't tell me anything," he said evasively; it wasn't actually far from the truth. Still, even though he had next to no information to give, he thought it best to try and make his way towards the door before he accidentally let another piece of it slip. "Sorry," he said by way of goodbye.

  

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