May 23rd, 1891 - The Augurey

Usually his work meant he could be cagey on full moon days, but Kieran hadn't been able to avoid scheduling this interview. It would be fine, maybe. He'd managed to pull himself together that morning and he looked sick but he didn't know this interview subject, so they oughtn't be too concerned — and he would get back to Jude's with plenty of time to spare.

He'd used the Augurey as his meeting location and it took him more time than he'd expected to get through the interview and finish his notes, but he still had time. The sun wasn't hanging too low in the sky yet. He'd just get out of the ABC, apparate over to Jude's, and no one would be the wiser.

He just had to make it out of the Augurey without any more lengthy conversations or delays — and surely Miss Scamander wouldn't be too difficult for him to brush off?

"Oh, Miss Scamander," Kieran said, as he stood up from the table, "You caught me on my way out." He dropped his notebook into his bag. He had time. Not a lot of it, but — Kieran moved to cap his inkpot and accidentally sent the liquid spilling all over the table. "Shit."

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Marlena Scamander Elladora Black
Jude Wright Elias Grimstone fyi/for laterz

  

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set by MJ!

There were any number of pleasures to be found in the ABC and tonight Lena had settled on gin as her vice. She had avoided a row with her mother – fortunately Sunday dinner had been saved by Helga talking about the season again - and she was rewarding herself with the possibility of seeing her favourite barmaid. Sadly she was absent but there was always someone to talk to here.

“I thought I told you to call me Marlena,” she said as she approached Kieran’s table, noting as she did that he looked gaunter than she had ever seen him, which was saying a lot given his usual state as a shabby skeleton.

“Merlin, you look dreadful,” she said bluntly, avoiding the drips of ink that were spilling off the table. “Are you alright?”

  

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MJ: still raising the graphics bar as of 2022

"Marlena," Kieran echoed, stressing the second syllable. He would get there eventually, he thought — he usually was there, except when he was running late to an appointment he couldn't avoid. He corked the inkpot and frowned at the table; he could ignore the ink dripping off of it, but he couldn't drop an inkpot with wet ink into his bag with his books and his notes. He drew his wand and muttered a spell to vanish the ink — a waste of money, but he didn't have time to try to magic it back into the inkwell.

"I'm great," Kieran said, thumbing around the edge of the inkwell to see if there was still wet on it. His thumb came away black. Fuck. "Little hungover, but —" he shrugged.

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set by MJ!

“No, I know what that looks like,” Lena replied, sipping her drink. It was hardly as though she had never seen Kieran looking a little worse for wear before – it was essentially his standard look – but this was so much worse.

Taking pity on him Lena pulled out her own wand and cast a spell to neatly draw the ink back into the pot. He was distracted and she could never recall a time when he had left the bar earlier than…well, anyone really.

“Maybe you’re coming down with something?”

  

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MJ: still raising the graphics bar as of 2022

Ugh, Marlena Scamander was observant, so how was he supposed to blow her off effectively? "Thanks," Kieran mumbled as she restored his inkwell to functionality. He twisted the top to make sure it was fully sealed before he dropped it into his bag, which meant that now he ought to be able to go, but if he left too quickly, would she just figure him out?

"Must be a flu, I don't know," Kieran tried, and immediately regretted the excuse.

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set by MJ!

It might be going around, she supposed. But it didn’t seem right. Something else was wrong: she knew it in that moment as well as she knew anything because, apart from anything else, he never left this hastily. Kieran was a first in, last out sort of man and Marlena had wondered before now how his liver functioned.

He was often talking to Eileen so Marlena had, perhaps inadvertently, observed him quite a lot.

“Or you’re a werewolf,” Lena joked brashly, taking a sip of her drink.

  

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MJ: still raising the graphics bar as of 2022

Oh, he was so fucked. Kieran grinned at her, crookedly, trying his best to project normal and not frantic even as he buckled the strap of his bag. Marlena Scamander was a smart woman. Marlena Scamander was a smart woman, and it was the full moon, and he was going to have to come up with something if he was going to get out of this without being arrested, and so —

"I'm actually going to meet Jude."

Unrelated to his apparent flu, but maybe if he had an appointment she wouldn't think it was about the full moon? He was so fucked.

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set by MJ!

Wasn’t he always? Lena barely saw them apart – she had her theories as to why but politely kept them to herself – so it hardly seemed like news.

“Careful you don’t give it to him.”

Peering at him over her drink she tried to assess whether the double entendre might be enough to make him blush. Certainly he could do with a little colour and she desperately wanted to be proven right: having friends that were like her would be wonderful – perhaps they would know how she was supposed to go about the business of finding someone who looked at her like Kieran did Jude.

“Unless he has it already, of course.” She added, eyebrow raised.

  

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MJ: still raising the graphics bar as of 2022

Kieran flushed, to the extent that he currently could flush. He very much grasped her meaning — or he thought he grasped her meaning — and, good Merlin, what were they teaching Unspeakable women up at the Ministry? Unless, of course, she had similar ticks herself. "Oh, not that I know of," he said, hoping she wouldn't call him on it and knowing that was probably too optimistic of him.

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set by MJ!

She snorted out a laugh. "If you have it then I'm sure he does too," Lena said with the raised eyebrow over her drink, knocking back the rest of her drink and feeling the pleasant burn at the back of her throat. "You're never apart."

  

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MJ: still raising the graphics bar as of 2022

"Well, at least if he already has it I won't get him sick," Kieran said, a little flippant — more flippant than he ought to be, given the time and the connotations of their conversation. "I really have to go, though — see you around?"

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set by MJ!

"Are you sure? I was just about to get another drink in," Lena said, holding up her empty glass. Kieran, she knew, never said no to a drink but he definitely seemed in a hurry. Which either meant that something was very wrong indeed or she had misjudged entirely the blossoming friendship she had been hoping for.

"It's the best way to get rid of a hangover judging by what some of the Ministry men keep in their desk drawers."

  

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MJ: still raising the graphics bar as of 2022

If he was not already running late Kieran absolutely would have taken her up on the offer; not just because he usually said yes to drinks, but also because he genuinely liked Marlena. ”I owe you a drink later this week,” he said instead, and bolted.

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set by MJ!

Marlena frowned after him, barely noticing the darkening sky outside as she pondered what on earth was wrong with Kieran. It seemed he was ill all the time without their being any indication that he was ever getting better or worse - strange. And it was an illness that, for whatever reason, never seemed to inflict itself upon anyone he came into close contact with, including Jude, with whom Marlena suspected he was in the closest contact with...

Curious.

When Marlena finally left the pub, two drinks later, she didn't notice the full moon shining on her head.

  

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MJ: still raising the graphics bar as of 2022