October 31st, 1889 — Halloween on the Streets

Garrett wasn't a heavy drinker nor the sort to actively seek a lot of socialization but he was in a festive mood. The orange lights indicating participating venues seemed to be lending to a very Halloween atmosphere as people in costumes and children trying to 'catch the pumpkin' ran about, yelling out in an odd mix of disappointment and delight when it vanished mere moments of their grasp and reappeared elsewhere. Preoccupied with being tickled by the adorable child costumes, Garrett accidentally ran into someone coming out of one of the pubs. "Oh, sorry," he apologized hastily.

  

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This, Adam was starting to realize, had been a mistake. He hadn't planned to adopt one of the kittens before he'd come by tonight, but the boxes of mewling black fur balls had caught his eye as he walked by, and he'd thought perhaps it would be a nice gift for his family. It would give his sister something to have responsibility for, which would be good for her, and could keep his mother company when she was alone in the house all day with her laundry. There had been a few boxes with five or six kittens playing together, and one where every cat had already been chosen except one, who looked terrified. Of course he'd chosen the one lonely kitten — but now he was starting to think there was a reason it had been overlooked.

"Don't you — agh," he said as the kitten wriggled out of his hands, leaving him with a nasty scratch and fleeing towards the door. It may have been small, but it was fast, and Adam had to depart the group he'd been conversing with at a near sprint in order to reach the door around the same time. The kitten slipped out into the street, snaking through the feet of someone entering the bar. Adam dodged left to get around the other person — but immediately ran into someone else in the street beyond.

"Ah — apologies," he said, righting himself quickly and casting an eye around to see if he could find the kitten. "Sorry, did you see a cat?" he asked, before spotting a streak of a black shadow heading beneath the table skirt of a vendor selling caramel apples. "Ah!" he declared, heading after it.

  

A cat? Garrett could only shake his head when the man asked if he had seen one. That perked his curiosity enough for him to follow after the bloke, figuring he might be able to help corrall the feline. "I'll head that way and see if I can't make it run back towards you," he offered, already moving into the position that he had suggested.

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Adam was typically loathe to accept help from anyone, and particularly a stranger. He greatly preferred to be on the giving end of that relationship (sometimes to the point of excess; he had, on occasion, arrived to work sleep-deprived after having helped a neighbor with a task late into the night). Here, though, he was in no position to refuse. He'd never had a pet of any variety before, and was decidedly out of his depth with the cat. He was also starting to get the feeling that this was not a normal kitten. Normal kittens, he was sure, were cuddly and playful, and didn't try to escape after leaving big gashes on the hands of people who supposedly owned them.

"Be careful if she comes your way," he offered by way of advice as he approached the vendor's stall. "She's... feisty," he concluded, with another look at the gash on his hand. He would feel really awful if some stranger ended up injured while trying to help him get his kitten back. Was it ethical to use magic to catch a kitten? Somehow that seemed a little... wrong, maybe? Certainly excessive. But decidedly safer.

The vendor at the stall hadn't noticed the cat, it seemed, because he had his typical 'sales smile' on when Adam approached. "Uh, sorry, I just need to look below your table a minute," he said, fully aware of how crazy that must have seemed. "I lost something and I think it might have slipped under."

The man didn't seem thrilled by this explanation (probably at least partially because it meant Adam would not be buying any of his things), but did let him approach and lift the table skirt. He peered below it, not realizing that placing his face that close to a probably terrified kitten with a proven tendency to defend herself was probably not the wisest idea.

  

"All right," he said with a slight chuckle at the mans warning. The kitten seemed quite determined to make a break for freedom. He didn't see it anywhere so hopefully it had not yet run pat his current spot. Problem in spotting it was the multitude of vendors currently taking up the space and the fact the kitten was small.

He came to the table from the other direction that the stranger had approached it. A small mewling the only sign for Garrett that they were on the right track. "Is she under there?" Garrett asked curiously.

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Adam couldn't answer the man's question, because he couldn't see far enough beneath the stall to even tell. It was dark-ish already on the street, and he had the added shade of the stand to contend with, and the kitten was all black. After peering at the darkness for a second, he took out his wand and muttered "Lumos."

The light reflected back off of the cat's eyes, wide as saucers, and she let out a hiss. Adam hadn't even known that cats were capable of hissing before this, but he knew what he'd heard. The sound certainly didn't make him that keen to reach under the table and try to grab her, but she seemed keen on staying put, so he wasn't sure what other option he might have. Could you just accio a kitten? That didn't seem altogether humane.

"Uh, yeah, she's in there," he announced. He kept his eyes on her and his wand lit, but he honestly didn't know what to do next.

  

Garrett could hear the hiss which made him wince a bit. The crowds had probably made the feline ornery. It certainly wasn't feeling particularly sociable. Hunkering down at the other side of the table, he tried to make a grab for the kitten. Only it sent it skittering into the other mans path instead before attempting to bank a sharp right when the feline seemed to realize that it was running towards someone.

  

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Adam caught on to what the other man was doing just a half-second before he reached for the cat. If he'd realized earlier, he likely would have tried to stop him. He was sporting his own wounds from the cat's claws, and he didn't want to see someone else inflicted with similar wounds just because they'd stopped to help him. Luckily, the kitten skittered away instead of launching into him and attacking, then headed towards Adam. He put his hands down to catch the cat, then realized that this was stupid — he was a wizard, and almost an auror, at that. He was meant to be catching dark wizards as a career. He ought to be able to catch a kitten without getting his hands torn to ribbons!

The kitten feigned away from him, and Adam drew his wand as quickly as his auror-in-training reflexes would allow. With a quick spell, he encircled the kitten in a harmless — but quite impenetrable — sphere of blue magic.

"Ha!" he said, sitting back on his heels. "Gotcha!"

  

Garrett watched in mild fascination as the other man got out his wand pretty quickly. At least, in terms of Garretts opinion on speed anyway. He chuckled as the kitten was captured. "Going to take him home after all that?" He asked curiously as the cat seemed to be looking out defiantly from it's little magical prison. It was a fiesty kitty, that was for certain!

  

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That was... a good question. Adam surveyed the angry ball of black fur, not sure how to proceed. He certainly wasn't in any hurry to touch the thing again, given how badly she'd wrecked his hands a moment ago. On the other hand... "I don't know what else to do with her," he confessed. He was certainly not going to give a feral kitten to his sister, as he'd originally intended, but letting her loose in Diagon Alley to get run over by a vendor's cart or eaten by a particularly large owl didn't seem very fair. It was just a kitten, after all.

  

"Perhaps a pair of dragonhide gloves to pick her up to start," Garrett half-joked as he eyed the kitten. "I'm sure she will get used to you once she's not in this big crowd." It seemed like the logical thing to assume it was the crowd that was partly making the kitten crazy. But then, he had seen some cats that just ... were like that.

  

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Adam chuckled at the suggestion, but knew he wouldn't follow it. As if he could afford a pair of dragonhide gloves! Still, maybe he had a point about touching the kitten with something other than his hands, at least at first. He could use a towel, or a pair of normal gloves. He had a set of leather gloves he'd gotten a few years ago, which were thin from use but would certainly be better than nothing.

"Let's hope," he agreed. "Thanks for your help catching her." Then, as he realized that the suddenness of their meeting had not exactly left room for introductions, he added almost as an afterthought, "Adam Ragge, by the way."

  

"You're welcome," Garrett said with a smile as the other man thanked him for helping to catch the kitten. "Garrett Cavey." He would have held his hand out to shake but the man had his hands full, quite literally. "If you don't need any other kitten-catching assistance I shall be on my way."

  

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