September 30th, 1888 - The Augurey Beak Cafe
This letter nonsense really had everyone all over the place. Kieran, as someone who wrote stories and so did not appear in them, was finding this all very amusing. (He probably would find it significantly less amusing if Jude got one.) As someone who was not a social and gossip reporter, he found it even more amusing, because it meant that his workload was significantly lessened as they scrambled around trying to learn things in time for copy. Hilarious.
He was reading the day's Witch Weekly, which he had actually purchased that morning, and drinking whiskey while seated at the bar. This was all to say that Kieran was in his happy place. The other good thing was, given that it was a Sunday, the bar wasn't even crowded. He couldn't have made this better if he tried. A former candidate for Minister married a female auror, the head auror had married that girl he kept cavorting around with, and he could not wait to see who else had been made a fool of. This prankster was, possibly, Kieran's new favorite person. He probably would have felt actual sympathy if the prank had impacted anyone who felt real to him. While Key ran into aurors when he was on work assignments, that did not mean that reporter-auror interactions were ever anything that even approached human. And besides that, the concept of a debutante was so far removed from his existence that he could not even picture the new Mrs. Umbridge as a real person.
Apparently the universe was conspiring to make this better for him, because who spilled through the doors of the Augurey but Eileen's friend Tala. Kieran's face lit up with mischief as soon as he saw her come through the doors; he straightened in his seat. His eyebrows shot up. He couldn't help but grin. Because in addition to being Eileen's friend, Tala had deployed quite the display with Asha the other day, or so Kieran was told. (That he had missed this was a tragedy. He had nearly fallen off of his barstool when told about it.)
Tala looked rather harried, but Kieran decided not to put too much mind to that. They weren't close enough friends for him to be that concerned about it, and the opportunity to poke fun outweighed any arguments in favor of being concerned for a friendly acquaintance. Maybe one of her plants was ill. That seemed like something that would happen to a herbologist.
"Are you looking for Mr. Bilton?" he asked. Key did not even bother to keep the snark out of his tone. Tala had lost her ability to avoid snark with her public display of affection; if Asha had been with her, Kieran would have been even more obnoxious. "Or our dear Eileen?"
Either, Kieran figured, were equally likely. Unfortunately for Tala, Eileen was stuck at work, and Asha was nowhere to be found. And so she was stuck with Kieran. He did not anticipate that she would decide to stick around for very long.
He was reading the day's Witch Weekly, which he had actually purchased that morning, and drinking whiskey while seated at the bar. This was all to say that Kieran was in his happy place. The other good thing was, given that it was a Sunday, the bar wasn't even crowded. He couldn't have made this better if he tried. A former candidate for Minister married a female auror, the head auror had married that girl he kept cavorting around with, and he could not wait to see who else had been made a fool of. This prankster was, possibly, Kieran's new favorite person. He probably would have felt actual sympathy if the prank had impacted anyone who felt real to him. While Key ran into aurors when he was on work assignments, that did not mean that reporter-auror interactions were ever anything that even approached human. And besides that, the concept of a debutante was so far removed from his existence that he could not even picture the new Mrs. Umbridge as a real person.
Apparently the universe was conspiring to make this better for him, because who spilled through the doors of the Augurey but Eileen's friend Tala. Kieran's face lit up with mischief as soon as he saw her come through the doors; he straightened in his seat. His eyebrows shot up. He couldn't help but grin. Because in addition to being Eileen's friend, Tala had deployed quite the display with Asha the other day, or so Kieran was told. (That he had missed this was a tragedy. He had nearly fallen off of his barstool when told about it.)
Tala looked rather harried, but Kieran decided not to put too much mind to that. They weren't close enough friends for him to be that concerned about it, and the opportunity to poke fun outweighed any arguments in favor of being concerned for a friendly acquaintance. Maybe one of her plants was ill. That seemed like something that would happen to a herbologist.
"Are you looking for Mr. Bilton?" he asked. Key did not even bother to keep the snark out of his tone. Tala had lost her ability to avoid snark with her public display of affection; if Asha had been with her, Kieran would have been even more obnoxious. "Or our dear Eileen?"
Either, Kieran figured, were equally likely. Unfortunately for Tala, Eileen was stuck at work, and Asha was nowhere to be found. And so she was stuck with Kieran. He did not anticipate that she would decide to stick around for very long.