The Augurey Beak Café was precisely as grim as Morwenna had imagined it to be and she had seen some true sties in her time. On the whole the owners of magical beasts, legal or otherwise, were not noted for their fastidiousness in personal cleanliness or the neatness of their homes but even Morwenna had never seen a place quite literally decorated with a dead Irish phoenix. She couldn’t help but feel slightly offended on behalf of her home nation and the beast that had supplied the beak that gave the pub its name.

Behind the bar a young woman looked at her as though she had never before beheld a respectable woman carrying a wicker basket on a Sunday afternoon but after enduring Morwenna’s piercing stare for a moment she came to her sense and jumped to action. Morwenna ordered a whiskey, silently prayed that the girl was kind enough to give her the cleanest glass she could manage, and scanned the dimly lit room until she spotted her quarry.

“I’m not overly accustomed to drinking in the middle of the day but when in Rome,” she quipped as she took the seat opposite Mr Abernathy, dispensing with a greeting and quickly running her eyes over him. Somehow he looked less gaunt here than he had on the odd occasion she spotted him at the Ministry – of late there had been a great deal to report on and their paths crossed, but she could hardly give him too much attention there. “I’m not interrupting anything I hope?” She smiled mockingly, taking a sip of her drink. “It was my turn to come to your office but you don’t have a helpful secretary.”

Chuckling Morwenna glanced around the pub once again. To say she felt out of place in such establishments was an understatement but Morwenna was nothing if not accustomed to brazening out any ill-ease with her surroundings. She had spent most of her life doing just that and she wasn’t about to be ran out of the saloon by a gentleman with the same number of eyebrows as teeth glaring at her from near the back door.

“If only I could be sure you were joking,” she sipped her whiskey and nearly spat it out. A look towards the bar confirmed that there was a top shelf of brands she had heard of but the dust on them quite suggestive of how often they were ordered. She took another drink – the sooner she got finished this one the closer something better was.

“I’m sure it has it’s hidden qualities.”

Smiling Morwenna tilted her head in acquiescence. It wouldn’t be the first time she had been blindsided by a rough diamond even if she doubted all the elbow grease in the world could make this place shine.

“I hope you’ve been doing more than drinking to keep yourself in good health?”