Evander was too transfixed in horror by the newspapers to register the witness to it until she got close enough to speak, and even then he only tore his eyes away for a split-second. He didn’t know how he was going to explain any of it to a bystander - almost wanted to beg her not to read them - but if he were such a public failure as this, then the cat was possibly already out of the bag. (The cat was long gone, in fact, if the Daily Prophet had had the time to write quite so many articles as this.)
There was something off about the logic of this - the changing faces of the newspaper headlines, their sudden and mysterious appearance in Diagon Alley (he had read the newspaper this morning, hadn’t he? Just like he did every day -) but it didn’t quite settle into place until he looked back and found the scene changed anew. The newspapers were still looming, but now there was parlour furniture about, out in the street before them, and what was even more odd were the intimidating locks and straps on them. Like no chairs he had ever seen before, save in the bowels of the Ministry courtrooms, but those were not armchairs by any measure.
And nothing explained their presence here. They were almost sinister looking -
Evander glanced at the woman again, struck by her youth and the arrested expression on her face. “This is not my doing, ma’am, I’ve no notion what...” He trailed off, still gripping his wand dumbly, as another thought clicked into place in his mind, contradicting his words even as he said them. He knew what this must be.
If only knowing was quite the same as dispelling it.
There was something off about the logic of this - the changing faces of the newspaper headlines, their sudden and mysterious appearance in Diagon Alley (he had read the newspaper this morning, hadn’t he? Just like he did every day -) but it didn’t quite settle into place until he looked back and found the scene changed anew. The newspapers were still looming, but now there was parlour furniture about, out in the street before them, and what was even more odd were the intimidating locks and straps on them. Like no chairs he had ever seen before, save in the bowels of the Ministry courtrooms, but those were not armchairs by any measure.
And nothing explained their presence here. They were almost sinister looking -
Evander glanced at the woman again, struck by her youth and the arrested expression on her face. “This is not my doing, ma’am, I’ve no notion what...” He trailed off, still gripping his wand dumbly, as another thought clicked into place in his mind, contradicting his words even as he said them. He knew what this must be.
If only knowing was quite the same as dispelling it.
