23 February, 1892 — Padmore Park

Dot was greatly relieved that all the kidnap victims had been found (well, sort of), primarily because this allowed her a much greater freedom of movement. She hadn't known anyone personally impacted by the kidnapping, but her mother had been fretting over "what might happen" all month. Now, at long last, she was free to once again aimlessly roam Padmore Park with one of the maids. Well, ostensibly with one of the maids. Dot liked to walk alone, and Bess liked to meet up with her sweetheart for kisses. The pair had an arrangement. What Mama didn't know wouldn't hurt her.

Today's jaunt through the Park was unusual, however: at the entrance to a garden area, peacefully munching on a hedge, was a zebra.

"I always thought they'd be bigger," Dot remarked, to nearest passerby. "Do you think it's a real zebra?" Hopefully it wasn't a transfigured child, or anything. That would be perfectly awful — but she thought she'd read somewhere that all the children were accounted for by this point?

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Beautiful set by Kit!

If there was one thing which irritated Walter was having his time wasted. A few days before he had been contacted by an Informant who swore they had important information and wanted to meet in person instead of using other means of communication. A time and place was included in the message and Walter had made sure to be at the location on time. Nearly fifteen minutes later he was still waiting and his informant hadn't shown up. Snorting in disgust, Walter moved out of the garden area of Padmore Park, intending to find a suitable spot to apparate away. Instead something caught his attention, prompting him to delay his departure.

At first he thought it was some wizard's idea of a fashion statement, dressing their horse in alternating bands of white and black but at closer inspection he realized it wasn't a horse at all, but a zebra. Walter watched it moving slowly as it grazed, puzzled as to why such a strange creature was here of all places. Before he could decide whether to investigate the creature to see if was born of magic and not some escaped animal from zoo or some such he heard somebody speak out loud nearby.

Though he hadn't consciously noticed her, subconsciously he had been aware of her presence thus the question hadn't started him. What puzzled him more was she seemed to be asking him the question.

"As far as I can tell it is a real zebra," Walter responded, turning his attention fully on the young woman. She appeared to be alone which was unusual as most women her age didn't venture out without a proper escort. At last he didn't see anybody else nearby who could be called a chaperone. "I rarely come to the park so I am unaware of what animals are normally here."

  

"How can you be certain?" Amity chimed in when she heard two people discussing the presence of a zebra. "It might be one of those kidnapped people who were transfigured into an animal." Most of the missing people had been recovered but some were unaccounted for. The possibility that this zebra was actually one of those people surely existed.

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Dorothea's mouth twitched in the direction of a smile at his remark, unsure if he intended to tease her or not. The interruption by a third party brought her back to the present, however, reminding her that this was hardly a matter for levity if it really did turn out to be one of the missing people.

"That's exactly what I was thinking," she agreed with a nod. "Zebras are certainly not typically found in Padmore Park." She considered the creature for a moment, which was still peacefully munching on the hedge, then turned to survey her two conversation partners. "What do you think we ought to do about it?" she asked. She could not imagine she would be much help in catching and containing a stray zebra, but she didn't think it wise to just leave the poor thing at the hedge and hope someone else handled it, either.

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Feel free to post again after 2 days or 2 posts have elapsed since your last post, whichever comes first :)

  

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Beautiful set by Kit!

Walter turned when another woman inquired how he could be certain the zebra wasn't real. She did make a good point and one had him glancing at the zebra once more. He had heard about the missing people being later found transformed into various animals but he had thought all missing people had been recovered and returned to normal. Yet, it was odd to see a zebra which definitely wasn't native to England, however it could still be just a normal mundane zebra.

"Hmm, it is possible it's a transfigured person," Walter agreed, nodding towards the second woman before turning to the first. "If it's a transformed witch or wizard, it should be able to understand us if we speak to it gently, but if it's wild or an escaped zoo animal, it'll likely run off as soon as we get close."

"Wait for me here, I'll try and approach the zebra and see if I can determine there is something magical about it and if it needs our help," Walter decided. If it was a normal zebra it may not like people getting close and he wouldn't want to put either woman in danger. If it was a transfigured person he can lead it back here then they could all head to the nearest Ministry of Magic office.

OOC: Feel free to protest being left behind...want to give you both a chance to do something before moving Walter towards the zebra. Also, don't know if the plan is to have the zebra actually a transformed human or just a normal animal.

  

"Even if they are human, they might still run off in panic," Amity couldn't help but point out logically. If it was a child or even just someone traumatized, they might still just run off. She couldn't imagine how it would feel to spend weeks as an animal. "So might be best to try and catch the zebra even if it tries running off. They aren't native to this region so will need to be handed over to people who can properly care for it anyway."

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Dot had no particularly good ideas about how to handle rogue wildlife, so she was quite content to let the gentleman take the lead. That said, she had no answer to the concerns raised by the other young woman, either. A human might run off, especially if they had recently been the victim of malicious kidnappers. The experience likely did not engender a great deal of trust. She also had a point about the care of the animal... or at least, Dot supposed she did. She had no expertise in the maintaining of zebras which she could refer to, personally.

"How does one care for a zebra?" she mused, half rhetorically and half towards the other young woman, who seemed to have some ideas about this sort of thing (how did a debutante come to be acquainted with the husbandry needs of zebras? — this woman was mildly intriguing).

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Beautiful set by Kit!

Walter glanced back at the dark haired woman and gave a nod, deciding it was easier to just not respond. Sure it was possible a transformed human would react in fear anyway but he had no intention of chasing zebras all over the park. If it started to run he'll simply immobilize it with magic and get it over with. However, if the zebra was human he was confident he could approach it and assure it it was not in any danger. If it turned out to be just a normal zebra, he'll hand it over to the local animal control professionals and be done with it.

"No need to worry, I'll handle it," Walter decided to say before making his way towards the zebra.

He did take Care of Magical Creatures during his time at Hogwarts which gave him some knowledge on how to approach wild animals of a magical nature. He used the same techniques with the zebra, seeing no reason to be different. As soon as the zebra took note of him, lifting his head up from grazing to eye him cautiously. Walter held his hands up slightly to show he had no wand or other weapon in them and slowed his approach.

"Easy does it, not going to hurt you," he spoke softly and calmly. "If you can understand me, nod your head. I can help you return to your true shape if you have been transfigured into a zebra."

He waited to see if the zebra understood him of if he was talking to a normal animal and looking like a fool to anybody around who hadn't overheard the conversation he had with the two young women.

  

Dot frowned as she watched the gentleman approach the zebra. He was blocking her view, not that his audience was likely to be the first thing on his mind at a moment like this — but still, it was the most exciting and unusual thing that had happened to Dot all week, and she didn't intend to miss out on seeing it. She popped up to her tiptoes.

"He doesn't even have his wand out," she observed in a hush to the other woman. She didn't know exactly what he was planning, but she thought in his shoes she might have at least wanted it handy, in case the animal decided to —

Startle backwards, rear up its legs, and attempt to kick him in the chest, as the zebra promptly did. Oh, dear. Perhaps it was a wild animal, then — or perhaps it was a rather irate kidnapping victim.

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Beautiful set by Kit!

If he hadn't been focused on the zebra he may have missed the rippling of muscle as it shifted it's weight to its hindquarters in preparation to rear. Walter jumped back and to the side easily avoiding the flash of hooves as it tried to kick him. Years as an Auror gave him plenty of practice of getting his wand up and ready to cast a spell within seconds.

"Enough," Walter said flatly, casting a restraining spell with a quick movement of his wrist. The zebra had tried to run off when it's attack failed to connect but before it could turn and run off the spell caught it in it's snare. With a baying whinny it froze in place, unable to move.

Walter had enough presence of mind to control the spell and ease the zebra down on it's side gently, instead of just letting it topple over as the paralyzing spell took effect. It had been an utter waste of time to assume it was a transfigured human who would be able to understand him. He was now convinced it was just a zebra which had managed to escape from whatever zoo it came from.

"It's safe now," Walter called out, glancing over at the two young women. "Word will have to be sent to the local zoo and see if they are missing one of their zebras."

  

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Dot had been convinced the zebra was going to head straight for the pair of them when it had first started to bolt. She'd let out a squeak of surprise and crowded over towards the young woman, hoping that the zebra would barrel past them instead of trying to go over them... but subsequently felt rather silly when the man stopped the zebra in its tracks, a good dozen feet away from them. She shot the other young woman an apologetic glance and took a small step out of her personal space.

"You aren't going to try and transfigure it back?" she asked, curiously. "Just in case?"

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Beautiful set by Kit!

Walter turned and looked down at the prone zebra, the way it's sides heaved up and down in a way that seemed too fast for his liking. Pulling out a handkerchief he enlarged it and laid it over the zebra's eyes, hoping darkness will calm it. Turning he regarded the young woman for a moment when she asked if he was going to try and transfigure it back to make sure it wasn't a human.

"It won't hurt to try," he agreed. Taking a step back he flourished his wand in the moves necessary to reverse a polymorph type spell. He had to be careful with the type of counter magic he used as he didn't want to remove the immobilizing charm he had on the zebra. The last thing he wanted was to have it leap to its feet and possibly harm one of the two young women or himself for that matter.

When nothing happened he cast a few other spells, these ones designed to detect the presence of magic of the transfiguration kind as well as curses and dark magic. He found nothing besides the presence of the immobilizing spell he used to contain the beast. Satisfied this was no transformed human or anything else for that matter, he returned his attention to the young women.

"As you can see, this isn't a transfigured person," Walter said, putting his wand away. "I also checked to make sure this isn't some kind of curse or dark magic. Its just a lost zebra who needs to be brought back to its home."

  

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Amity almost instinctively went into a stance where she was sort of protecting the other young woman should the zebra actually charge their way. Not that she was particularly the heroic type but it had kicked in before she really thought about it. "It must have still come from that menagerie. There were still some real animals among them. So it might not even belong to any of the local zoos." That much felt obvious to Amity so bore pointing out.

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Dot watched with interest as the man cast a series of spells, but she wasn't able to follow what he was actually doing, so it was good that he closed with an explanation of his work. Not a transfigured human — hm. She didn't know whether she was relieved or disappointed. She was distracted from this sentiment by the comments from the other woman. "Oh dear! An orphaned zebra," she remarked, with a pitying glance towards the prone animal. What would become of it? Perhaps some wealthy Hogsmeade resident would adopt it as a pet? It seemed too small to pull a carriage, but perhaps a child might be able to ride it around a yard.

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Beautiful set by Kit!

It was possible the zebra did come from Lansing's menagerie, there were plenty of beasts who escaped and no official count of how many had been kept in the magical suitcase. Still, what to do with the beast would mean contacting the local zoos anyway. Zebras couldn't be that much in demand as a pet but it wasn't the Auror's department to handle placement of beasts. He wasn't sure what had happened to the other creatures rounded up during that particular incident who didn't turn out to be transfigured wizards or witches.

"As Mr. Lansing is in custody and definitely unable to care for it, the zebra will likely be handed off to the zoo to find a good home. I'm sure they will be able to introduce it into their existing herd of zebras." Walter realized he had no clue what sort of animals was in the local zoo, he hadn't been to it personally. Looking over at the two women he decided both probably wanted assurances the zebra wouldn't be harmed in any way. "I'll do my best to ensure no harm befalls it."

  

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"How gracious," Dot replied, recognizing the auror's last sentence as a dismissal for both her and the other young woman. "How lucky for all of us that you were here, sir. I would have been quite at a loss without you."

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Beautiful set by Kit!