June 26th, 1888 — High Street

It had been a while since Anne had convinced herself to go out into High Street that morning. She would have much rather forgotten about the incident with the frogs, but she couldn't help but want to go shopping again. Plus, work was starting soon, and she did like to get there early. More chance to see the cute healers.

Today, though, she stopped. She knew that she'd heard rumors of a Carnival, and her friends had even said they'd seen carnies. And then there was the whole hospital business. Hadn't they been cooped up there? Anne had missed a few days, she was shamed to say. The woman she was looking at certainly looked interesting.

"Excuse me." Anne said, "Are you...do you...tell fortunes?" she didn't want to offend the women if she wasn't a carnie, but she was so curious.

  

Persephone had decided to wander outside the local shops. Even if most of the others felt that it dimmed the magic of their acts, she also questioned if they would even be doing an act. There was also the fact that she was one to sneak off every once in a while, which her fellow carnies seemed to have become used to. At least she wasn't one of the big acts.

Taking a look at the shops, even with the limited vision due to the fog, she enjoyed looking at the more fancy items for sale. In all honesty, there was a part of her that missed her past. She did love her life, she was more free and had a good amount of friends among her fellow carnies, but it was different. Mother and father hadn't been terrible to her, though a bit too expectant of her at times. Had her vision even been true? Was the man married now?

Her thoughts were broken when another woman approached her. Looking over, she smiled kindly at the blond. "Yes, I am Madam Persephone, what do you wish to know?" She said with an air of mystery in her voice. It couldn't hurt to give one little preview, could it?

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Anne grinned. She didn't want to believe in putting too much faith in Seers, but unlike a muggle woman, she knew that they could be real. And someone who made money off of this kind of stuff just couldn't be fake, right? "Well, I was wondering if you could tell me about my future. Like my future husband..." the nineteen year old got a dreamy look in her eye as she imagined living in a pleasant house.

And the woman was so mysterious! It was so awesome to Anne that anyone could have that level of mystery about them and not care about their reputation. Anne wanted nothing more than her family history, notably her aunt's, to disappear or become unknown to the public.

"Oh, do I have to pay?" Came as an afterthought to Anne. She did have some money, yes, but not much. At least, not with her at the moment. She usually only bought lunch. But she would gladly give up lunch if this fortune teller could tell her what to do in order to meet her future husband.

  

Visions were not nearly as common as customers. It was even more rare if she actually got a customer with their fortune at the ready. People may call her a scam, and not a seer at all, but those were the many who just had the rotten luck of coming to her when she wasn't having a vision. Even if she did have a real fortune for her customer, visions were not always reliable. It was simple facts.

What surprised her was the many wizards that did not know said facts who had actually taken divination in school. Had they even been taught about seers, or just how to read tea leaves and look into crystal balls? Persephone had never bothered to take the class. After all, she was practically living the class.

Payment. Should she even suggest to have the woman pay? The festival wasn't even open. "For you, I will make this small request. Your payment is to invite your friends to come see me when the festival is finally up and running. Have them tell me you sent them." She said. At least that request may get the head of their festival off of her back if this was ever found out. She waited for an answer before anything else.

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Anne nodded. Her family, she could invite. Maybe even some friends at work. Or she could even owl her friends. If they got the fog all cleared up. She didn't want her poor little owl to fly through the magic taking fog, even if it was harmless. "I'm sure they would love to come."

She waited for her fortune. Would it be pleasant? Or just advice for what she should do to meet her beloved. "Oh, and another question, if I can. I promise I'll bring everyone I know. Does my aunt die soon?" she tried not to look too hopeful. Maybe after her aunt's death people would leave Annie alone about the woman's decisions. It was so frustrating. Anne didn't even do anything, and she still had to bother with it.

  

Persephone hoped that the fog would clear soon. If they had come here for nothing it would all be a terrible waste. The time at the hospital would have been a waste. Now who would want that? And someone was going to have to pay for the lost time. The Ministry? Whoever started this fog? Hopefully it did not come to that, and this fog would be over long before summer was.

Before she could even begin, another request was given. One that made her raise her eyebrows. "Well... I'm sure everything will be clear soon." She said. Taking a moment, she wondered if she would actually get a real vision. Her mind had been fuzzy today, but she had assumed that it was due being in this fog for so long. After a moment, she decided to just begin. "I see eyes... green eyes, like emeralds. His hair is a light brown. He is kind, with a kind laughter in his voice when he is happy..." she started. But then, she started to feel a pain in her head.

Touching her hand to her forehead, she winced lightly. "My apologies." She mumbled. Then it hit her. Watching as if in the place of another. A figure in the darkness approached. There was a scream, there was a knife. And then there was a bloody knife. Coming out of it, she realized she was shaking. Blinking several times, she couldn't help but wonder if that was brought on by the question asked... or if someone else was to be murdered. "Watch after your aunt, I fear that she is in danger." She mumbled, looking at the woman once more. All mystery was gone from her voice, replaced by more shakiness.

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Anne was so pleased to hear about her future beau. He sounded like such a nice man! Who said fortune tellers couldn't be real? Silly muggles, that's who! She was just happy to hear that he would be kind. And green eyes. Oh, she would almost swoon if she hadn't noticed that the fortune teller seemed to be in pain. On the verge of asking what was wrong, she was interrupted.

Her aunt, in danger? Surely, Bunny did have some rather unfortunate qualities, but she hadn't heard of anything like prostitutes being hurt. And she hadn't meant it, even if she did hate seeing her aunt come up in scandals. Anne was a bit worried. If she had known to contact her aunt, maybe she would have done something. "Are you alright, ma'am?" She imagined her aunt all cursed and gross. If Anne had seen something like that, there was no way she would still be conscious. She would've fainted.

Anne gently put a hand on her shoulder. "Do you want to go to the hospital? I'm on my way there right now. Maybe you would feel better?" As she wasn't anywhere close to being a healer, she didn't know what to do. Maybe it was being in the fog? Was seeing magic, and if so did the fog affect it?

  

Words seemed to be somewhat hidden in the fog of her own mind. The images still swirled in her head even with the vision gone. Someone might die, and she was shaken by that. Someone might be murdered, and that left her all the more shaken. Looking up as the hand was placed on her shoulder, she hadn't even realized that she had looked down. "I... I don't know. We have to tell someone. Whether it was your aunt or not, someone might be murdered soon, we have to tell someone." She said, slightly frantic. Her shaking seemed to get worse by the second as she truly started to panic over the fact that she had seen someone murdered in a vision. Murdered.

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"Murdered? Are you sure?" Anne's voice rose higher in pitch, even for her. She did see some blood and gore coming through the hospital, but her own aunt, murdered? Anne made a note to beg further for disowning the woman, at least publicly. "Who would we tell? The Ministry? They must be much too busy with all this fog going around." Anne herself felt a little more rushed at her job due to the loss of magic. "And who would believe us? I know this may be difficult to hear, but I..I do not have quite the reputation of being a truthteller!" Anne relied a bit too much on Witch Weekly for her news. But surely a seer of this status wouldn't lie to her, right?

  

Nodding quickly, she watched as this woman reacted to the news. Though she was shaking, she was starting to feel numb as her fear continued to set in. All of this was so crazy. How was she to cope with the images in her mind? Will they haunt her for the rest of her life? It was likely if she failed to prevent someone's death. She would never forgive herself if she didn't do something with this information. "I'm sure they would try to save a life." She commented briefly. Would they? She had to believe that they would. "I'm sure they'd listen to a seer and at least investigate. If you're sure they won't believe you, I can go alone." She replied with urgency. They had to believe her, a person's life could be at risk!

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Anne was glad that she wasn't the only nervous one. But murder was really serious. She couldn't imagine anyone wanting to do such a crime, but she imagined her aunt could have made enemies. Oh, why couldn't she have a normal family. "I hope so. There's already so much danger around with the fog and the darkness. I'm sure that this season is already ruined." she felt silly talking about trivial matters at the moment, but it calmed her. She had a knowledge of things social, not things seer.

"Would you mind going with me? I do have to check in with work and tell them I would be missing. I cannot miss another day." Anne wasn't thinking when she had asked a seer a question on the way to work of all things. Maybe she would be better off not knowing anything about this whole ordeal.

  

Persephone didn't know what to do. The best thing she could think of was to take this information to officials. Who could do such a thing? The knife... either this was a muggle's doing, or it is going to be within the fog. Or perhaps the murderer wishes for one to think that this was the doing of a muggle? Though a terrible act indeed, that was quite a calculated one if this was the case. What flustered her was the mentioning of this season? How could that matter when things were so urgent? She didn't say a word of this however.

Thinking about it, perhaps if they did encounter this woman's boss, said boss would know what to do with this information better than she could. Nodding, she took deep breaths to calm herself. "Will we be talking to your boss? Perhaps they could help?" She said after a moment of thought.

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"Perhaps. I'm not sure who the best option would be to talk to, though. We might have to go directly to one of the healers in charge, or even the director, unless we want our message garbled." Anne shivered, both out of fear and cold. Despite the usually warm summer, the sun being blocked out did have a little effect. "We should start walking." This was awful. She could barely think, let alone hold any conversation, especially with the director of the hospital. Even if he was handsome.

"What is your name? And can you tell me more of the, well, the murder vision?" Anne asked. Oh, what she wouldn't give for the company of her ever gone chaperone, to fetch her something from the store.

  

The director, that position sounded important. If she remembered correctly, it was. How would we get in contact with them. "I say we go directly to the director. This information is too delicate to send to just anyone. I don't even know who the... the killer is." She stated, hushing her voice when saying killer. It was as if saying such a word too loud may get them killed. The very thought! Following the apparent healer, her mind raced with how she was going to explain this without sounding crazy.

Glancing at her, it wasn't as though she would give her real name. Despite all of this, she still didn't want her angry parents to come tracking her down. "Persephone." She stated quickly and simply.

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"Whatever you think is best." Anne nodded, "I'm not sure how we'll reach him, he's probably in his office. I deliver papers up there sometimes. I've heard he's nice, so hopefully he will listen to us." Anne began to feel a bit better about the situation, despite nearly jumping when Persephone said 'killer.' If they had a plan, surely nothing would go wrong. Unless the killer was watching them, had heard them discuss this. She could see headlines in Witch Weekly and maybe even the Prophet.

"A very interesting name. I am Anne Devon." Anne did love the simplicity of her name, and the way it could match so well with others.

  

At least this was something to be agreed upon. It was a very delicate situation after all. "We should go straight to his office. This is an emergency, I'm sure he'll understand." She replied. Though fearful, she was determined to save someone's life, whoever it was. Goodness, she knew so little about this situation.

Nodding a bit, that was one reason that she had chose it. If she had that, it would hopefully throw off any search to find her. "Nice to meet you, though I do wish that the circumstances were better." She responded.

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