14 April, 1890 — Hogsmeade Market, High Street

"No blackberry jam this week?" Jules asked with obvious disappointment in her tone as she surveyed the rows of little glass jars laid out on the vendors table. She frequently volunteered to do the shopping for the household when she wasn't terribly busy with either work or her project, and Cook never minded handing over the list. For obvious reasons, she did most of it in London, but she did try to go to the Hogsmeade Market when she could. The blackberry jam was the main reason, because the stuff she bought from this booth was so much sweeter and richer than what Cook picked up in London. The other reason was that there was a little bakery booth that had the cutest little bundles of biscuits for sale — but those weren't groceries, and they never made it all the way back home before Jules ate them all, so it wasn't a defensible reason to make the trip all the way to Hogsmeade.

"Well... we'll get the raspberry, then, I suppose. And a jar of the apple-butter," she added, turning her attention to the basket she'd brought along to fish out her money and pay. Having traded a few coins for the two small jars, she turned and walked down towards where the bakery booth usually was — only to find that it had been replaced by what appeared to be a butcher. The table was laid out with thick, angry-looking chunks of red meat on big slabs of ice, and a vendor was wrapping one such specimen in brown paper for a customer.

Big chunks of raw meat was not what she'd been looking for (though it was probably much closer to some of the items on her list than the little biscuit bundles), and Jules was so dismayed she stopped in her tracks in the middle of the busy street, nearly dropping her basket. "Oh, no," she said, as though this was the worst discovery she had ever made. "Not you too."

Kingsley Wells

  

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Prof. Marlowe Forfang

Jules

On the days Kingsley found himself in Hogsmeade, the ones where the market coincided with his visits were among his favorite. With Selene's pantry significantly depleted on account of well...the brunch she'd invited King over to, he'd volunteered to replenish some of the stock he'd scarfed down over Easter. Among the few items on his list were the copious amounts of stew he'd consumed (not to mention the cheese as well), extra herbs, spices, and a few more surprise compotes that he knew his sister liked.

The pickings at this week's market were a little thin in terms of supply – some were already out of stock, they were so in demand. Kingsley, fortunately, got most of the stock early enough that he only had a few items left on the list. It was between the compotes and some meat for the stew, which he pondered as he walked down the street. Passing by the mulled wine station, King indulged in a small takeaway cup, knowing he'd finish the small portion before he ended his market expedition.

After a sip of his drink, he reasoned that he might as well stop to get the meat before he got the compotes and turned to head that direction. Except a young woman had come to an abrupt halt in the middle of the street and he almost spilled his drink on her. "Oh heck," he exclaimed, caving inward slightly to avoid completely bowling into her. He peered around at her, wondering what had made her stop so suddenly. She was gazing horrorstruck at the meat stand to their right, and King found himself overcome with curiosity rather than a desire to navigate around her and continue onwards. "Erm....are you alright?" He inquired, moving to stand next to her. Had he any hands free, he might have waived a hand in front of her face to see if she reacted.

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Gloriousness by MJ! <3

No, she was not alright, and she almost said as much when the man asked her. Except she would have to explain herself if she told him, and he would probably think it was silly. The man who'd stopped next to her was a stranger (or so she imagined; she was not particularly good at keeping track of faces and names from social events and so could not be entirely confident she had never met him previously), and even those who knew her well and put up with many of her little eccentricities with a good-natured smile would have agreed that this was silly.

Juliana determined to compose herself and shrug the man off and go about her business, but could not quite manage it. The disappointment of missing her blackberry jam had rolled over to this new unexpected setback and it was just too much. Jules was good at handling big things with optimism or at least grace — her expulsion from Hogwarts, deaths in the extended family, catastrophes, rejections — but two small things at the same time was beyond her capacity for recovery, at least for the moment. There was nothing for it but to explain herself and let the man think what he would of her.

"They've gotten rid of my little bakery booth," she explained with anguish. "Every time I come, I buy a little bundle of biscuits — they put them in a little bag tied with pink ribbon, and they've icing around the edges — and now there's —" she gesticulated helplessly towards the butcher stall. "There's just this instead."

  

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Prof. Marlowe Forfang

Jules

Her bakery booth? King mused, briefly confused about why she wouldn't know if her own bakery booth had been moved or not - her explanation provided further context into her apparent distress. He followed her motions to the butcher's stall. She was right, Kingsley knew he'd seen the stall there previously, though he hadn't been to the market in some week's time. Judging by her statement of habits this was obviously the first week it'd been gone.

"They do sound delicious," He responded, for she made them seem quite a little treat. No wonder she was distraught if they were as good as she made them out to be. King glanced around and noticed a few stalls had changed places since the last time he'd seen them. He wasn't sure of the exact bakery name she was speaking of, but surely it must have been around here somewhere? "Could the stalls have switched places or perhaps merely skipped a week?" King offered in return, eyeing the now sinister-looking butcher stall. As if on cue,  the cleaver smacked down on the cutting board with a resounding thwack!

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The following 1 user Likes Kingsley Wells's post:1 user Likes Kingsley Wells's post
   Juliana Ainsworth

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Gloriousness by MJ! <3

The explanations he gave were both very logical, and if she hadn't been so put out they certainly would have occurred to her before she'd decided to melt down in the middle of the marketplace. If they'd only switched locations, she might still be able to salvage the outing, to an extent. If they'd taken the week off, though, she would just be out of luck. She didn't get to come around every week, after all — her outings were dependent on Mr. Lytton having a break in his schedule that allowed for her to take time to herself on a Tuesday or Thursday, and on Cook not having done the grocery shopping yet. It might be a month or more before she got her bag of biscuits. If she discovered that was the case only after wandering around looking for the booth for the next twenty minutes, though, and still had half her shopping list to get through, she imagined she'd be quite a wreck.

"You're right," she agreed, composing herself. "Of course you're right. It's hardly the end of the world. I was just so put out," she explained. "I only do the shopping once in a blue moon, you know, and they've always been my little treat — that and the blackberry jam from the stall in the middle of the market, and this week they were out of blackberry," she explained. "And I don't know when I'll be back this way again. It's just terribly disappointing."

  

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Prof. Marlowe Forfang

Jules

King's brow furrowed in sympathy for the woman - they sounded delicious and as fond as he was of food, he certainly understood why her disappointment was palpable. "They could perhaps be in the opposite direction." He suggested, glancing down at his own basket. They were similar in that they both rarely frequented the market, but he supposed it was best to not panic just yet. Things might change, after all!

"Why don't we try looking there," He continued, pointing in the direction and beginning forward. He paused to look back at her. "Unless you've already checked down that way?" In which case he wasn't entirely sure how else to go about solving the problem.

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Gloriousness by MJ! <3

Jules frowned as she considered the other end of the market. "I did come from that direction, but I wasn't paying much attention," she admitted. For someone who was intensely focused on her own research, and could lose herself in a set of study materials for hours on end, she could also be quite absent-minded. She occasionally managed to get lost in London, despite having lived there her entire life, so it was entirely possible that she'd walked right by her bakery booth if it wasn't in the place she'd expected it to be. A part of her thought that the vendor wouldn't have let her just wander by, but that was silly. She might have come to them every time she was at the market, but since that was so infrequent she could hardly assume that she was just as memorable to them as they were to her. They might not even consider her a regular customer.

"Alright, let's do it," she agreed, without questioning at all why this gentleman had just attached himself to her and her pursuit of biscuits with icing around the edges. She did not even consider that she might be inconveniencing him with this little errand, since he had offered. "Do you always shop here?" she asked conversationally as they started off.

  

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Prof. Marlowe Forfang

Jules

King himself had often made miscalculations and missed a stall or even an important announcement that he had missed at a meeting. His eidetic memory did him no favors if he wasn't paying attention to what was happening sometimes. He smiled sympathetically. "I've done that too," He said kindly, before looking up and down the way again.

Stall-owners kept glancing at their watches, and with another glance at his, King knew that they might be breaking for luncheon soon. He gave a nod and gestured the way with another smile. "I don't shop here often, no." he replied as they walked down the way. "Though I've visited here enough to notice that sometimes the stalls change." He glanced around, knowing that they only had so far to go until they reached the end of the line and hoped they might be able to find it soon. Selene would be wondering where he was with the spices.

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Gloriousness by MJ! <3