18 Aug, '94 — Hogsmead Slums

Charley liked to think about the slums as the beating heart of Hogsmeade. High Street might be the life of the town, but her people had their own way of life. She thought about them as her people, even if she was new to them. Down at this end of town, south and far from the crisp, clean streets and wide avenues, the urchin could spread her hands wide and almost touch both sides of the street. There were no secrets or mystery, just shadows. Shadows hid things, good or bad, and if she poked around the twists and turns of the slums, there was always something —or someone— new to be found.

Or old.

She hadn't expected to find the place where she had spent the winter before last. Taking refuge in the flower shop under Missus Crouch had saved the urchin from another run of dark months in that decrepit shack. Sometimes there were other people there, a family for a while, or other people her age. Mostly it was just Charley and her ever-smaller pile of belongings from her Hogwarts trunk, and that had been broken up early for firewood.

The sight of the place gave Charley an odd feeling in her chest. She tried to force it out, like a hiccup or cough, but it just wouldn't go. About to shake her head and move on, she stopped for a moment. The shack was someone else's —perhaps something else— now, that was the way things went in the slums, and there was no reason to expect that anything of hers was left inside. It wasn't like she needed the dress or hairpins left there any longer, the urchin knew she was letting curiosity get the better of her.

And she didn't care.

"'Ello?" The urchin pulled a knut from her pocket, tossing it in her hand as she pushed the door open. "Got a shiny if ya got an answer."

Charley had a flower in her pocket, too, but thought that coin might be more reassuring to anyone in the shadows. She had been one once and it wasn't hard to forget what that was like.

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Scallion Escher

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I always say the things I shouldn’t
Oh what a shame my tongue’s not tied

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Are you one of these? Scal pointed in the direction of three young children who were in the midst of using the sparse pieces of furniture in the room as a climbing frame for an energetic game of tag or something like it. They were so immersed in their game that they barely spared a glance at the door as it opened. At Scal's foot was a battered looking Moses basket with a lethargic infant tucked up inside.

Hold on, I recognize you! She couldn't put a name to the face, at least not yet, but she could picture the girl's face in the Gryffindor Common Room with alarming clarity. Every year since she'd started at Hogwarts, students like her would suddenly not be there in September and no one really talked much about it. Occasionally death was at the root of it, but usually it was because their families couldn't afford to send them anymore and all the while Scal was somehow still there, her grades weren't good enough for a scholarship and somehow she was still there. Her mother didn't earn enough to pay for her education and afford the rent and food for herself and Kermit. She'd realized this much years ago but she didn't really know that she wanted to learn what her secret was. What if her mother was doing something questionable? Or maybe someone else was sponsoring her secretly, after all her mother had never seemed to stress over the school fees or even question that she'd attend for all seven years. Scal wasn't sure she wanted to find out the truth if it was sordid. If her mother wanted her to have a full Hogwarts education then she'd respect that without question, even if she did think it was mostly wasted on her thus far. Wait, answer for what?

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Outfit | Tag: Charley Goode | Notes:

  

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It only took one glance for the urchin to peer past the lady who answered and giggle at the question. She shook her head, but her eyes stayed on the children playing. It might have been her once or twice, when a family stayed there with a small child who needed looking after. Now Charley ran across rooftops for the fun of it, and the only chase games she ever played were with the coppers.

"En't me, Miss," she said, just a bit on the polite side. It seemed like the right way to be when she had an ask to make. Charley might have a real chance at it with the young woman not being their mother. Some of them would shoo their children across the streets in the nicer parts of town, like near High Street, when they spied Charley nearby. Those sort weren't common here, not that she would hold it against any mother really.

The urchin wasn't the sort to hurt little children, not intentionally anyway.

"How'd ya mean?" Maybe Charley shouldn't be so sure of herself, or trusting either. The red-haired lady didn't look all that familiar to her, unless she was trying to guess the reflection a mirror would show her in a few years. With a long face full of freckles and long, red hair around it, the urchin could just as well have been staring at a future version of herself. She wasn't all that fond of the idea, really, and lifted the heel of her shoe to take a step back. "Won't be giving ya trouble, I swear!"

The young woman's question made the urchin remember her own, and the promise that had gone with. She made a quick, "Oh!" before shoving a hand to dig around in her pockets. Pulling out several knuts, she held them out in her palm. "Jes wanting to take a peek 'round, in case—"

Charley raised the other hand nervously, scratching at something under her cap. It loosed one of her braids, which made her eyes dart to the side and glare at it. "I usedta stay here for a bit, see? Thought I mighta left a thing or two behind."

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I always say the things I shouldn’t
Oh what a shame my tongue’s not tied

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Oh. Well that wasn't the sort of question she'd been expecting, not that she'd had much by the way of expectations really. The longer she stared at this girl though, the more convinced she was that she was right about who she was. Unfortunately, Scal couldn't quite put a name to the familiar face. She screwed up her face as she tried harder to remember anything she could about this girl.

This could, after all, be a scam. It wasn't the most sophisticated sort of scam and she didn't think the girl had chosen the richest of pickings, but then if she could get away with a bit of food or something then the risk of it might be worth it to her. Maybe she was telling the truth but Scal didn't want to get in the middle of it if it turned out this girl was trying to conduct a bold as brass daylight robbery. She supposed if she was on guard she could possibly risk it and if it seemed like the girl was up to no good she could impede her progress with magic. It hadn't yet occurred to Scal that she had no real way of knowing if an object the girl removed from the premesis was actually hers or not.

Who's to say you haven't been scouting the house since I came in and think you can pull the wool over my eyes? I don't want to help you burgle this place on my watch. Maybe there was a way to test whether this girl was telling the truth. Or she could just tell her to get lost... But Scal couldn't help feel a little tug of reluctance at that seeing as she sort of knew her a bit. Ish.

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Outfit | Tag: Charley Goode | Notes:

The following 1 user Likes Scallion Escher's post:1 user Likes Scallion Escher's post
   Charley Goode

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No, the urchin could have guessed the poor-little-urchin routine wouldn't really work out here. But for their age, she and the young woman were the same, just a working lass trying to get by. She slept on a cot now, with a warm fire going during winter, though Charley didn't so easily forget how hard life, and other people, could really be.

It didn't sting so much that the young woman thought she was just as hard as her life tried to make.

"If I was gonna do that, miss, I'da snuck right 'round while you was at the door with me," Charley pointed out, and made a big show of looking past the little shack's guardian. The trio of playing children were unbothered by any others in the place, bearing out her earnest confession. The urchin glanced back up at the young woman, letting her eyes and chin point out the obvious behind her. "'Sides, we know each other."

Charley couldn't imagine how, still. Only that plenty her age in Hogsmeade could have said she was familiar to them. How they remembered one small, freckled girl trying out magic for the first time in their classes, she'd never know. Except that she must have made such a brilliant impression that others, including this lady, could pick out her freckles from another's. Still, if she said they were familiar then they must be.

And that had to earn the urchin a morsel of trust.

"Alls I want is a look," Charley said, honesty reprising as the foremost act. It wasn't an act, not really, when she pulled off her cap and handed it to the young woman. "You hang on to this for a sec, keep me on the level?"

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I always say the things I shouldn’t
Oh what a shame my tongue’s not tied

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Initially, Scal accepted the hat without thinking, then upon realizing what she'd done, she thrust it back at the girl. Hold your own hat! You can't just come in here, you hornswoggler! And I don't know if we do know each other, I only said you seemed familiar. Maybe you just have one of those faces. There was no way this girl could best Scal in a wand fight, she clearly hadn't ever gone to Hogwarts or else was a drop out- Oh! That was it! It was even more clear to her now that the girl's hat was off.

Scal jabbed a finger in her direction dramatically. I remember, I used to see you in the common room! She unfortunately couldn't remember the girl's name though. At Hogwarts! Not that that really needed any clarification but there it was.

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Outfit | Tag: Charley Goode | Notes:

The following 1 user Likes Scallion Escher's post:1 user Likes Scallion Escher's post
   Charley Goode

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Charley thought it rather rude to have her own hat shoved back in her hands, and not only but to also be accused of the very opposite of what she was doing. It was all well and fair to be charged with stealing or swindling if that's what she was doing, and the urchin had done a fair share in her time. But, hat in hand, right now at the threshold of her old haunt, all she was doing was making a very polite request.

Not that Charley felt very polite any longer.

"I en't a-swoggling nothin'! Dontcha know what collateral is?" The urchin squinted at the young woman blocking her path, and pushed the hat back into her hands. "It's this here, worth more'n gold to me, an' when you mind this proper, I'll be mindin' proper inside, see?"

Since the other girl had started off the pointing, Charley did plenty of her own. To the hat, and then to its would-be minder, and then to herself. She might've also pointed with a different finger by now, but it was worth giving someone familiar the benefit of the doubt. Only until it wasn't returned, and with one of those faces looking rather pressed for patience, her fingers might be getting some more pointed exercise soon. And not in the way she'd been accused, either.

"Aye, Hogwarts." Charley had plenty to say about Hogwarts, and maybe she would if this fellow Gryffindor would let her by. She didn't seem to share her taller companion's easy view of the school, making it known with a scoff out the side of her mouth. "Tsch, those loonies. What're they doing, puttin' all our sort in the same house?"

She jabbed a finger at her hair and freckles, pointing away freely now. As long as there was no one to tell her off or threaten to cut off her finger, the urchin was going to point it where she pleased. "Like we're the best o' chums or summat. Never thought we'd be at odds, did they now? An' here's us, me called a thief afore I even stole nothing, you..." Charley jabbed her finger right under the young woman's chin, "forgettin' yer own head if it weren't attached."

Giving the young woman a pointed look, the urchin pulled back her thumb until it rested against her chest. "Charley."

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I always say the things I shouldn’t
Oh what a shame my tongue’s not tied

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Scal narrowed her eyes. What did she mean by 'our sort'? Scal could only think the girl meant their lowly place in society, but Gryffindor hardly had a reputation for being the house of the slums? What else did they have in common?

Oh. The girl had meant their hair color and complexion. She'd never noticed an abundance of redheads in Gryffindor in particular, but she'd admittedly not been trying to keep track either. Scal scowled as the precocious girl nearly prodded her in the chin and proceeded to mock her intelligence. Well, Charley, stick your grubby little finger in my face and call me forgetful again and I'll hex you into the High Street! She didn't have much of an appetite for getting into physical altercations with people so much smaller than her but this girl was getting up her nose and if she didn't cut it out soon...

I'm bigger than you and I know more magic than you so watch yourself. After a beat, her demeanor softened ever so slightly and she added, I'm Scal.

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Outfit | Tag: Charley Goode | Notes:

The following 1 user Likes Scallion Escher's post:1 user Likes Scallion Escher's post
   Charley Goode

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"I en't saying I'd be tempted, jes that it's not much of a threat," Charley grinned at the tall doorstop still standing in her way. It was easy to be pleasant when she'd finally found something that rubbed the young woman wrong. Served her right for calling Charley a thief, anyway. She flipped her hand back over her shoulder, thumb pointed up the way to High Street, saying, "Got me a job there, only hex you'd curse me with is makin' sure I'm on time."

Her lips twisted as the urchin's shoulders gave a little shrug. This Scal was starting to be more trouble than she was worth, despite her good suggestions. She might have to come back in the evening, or find a friend to pull off the tandem heist she'd been offered. The urchin always liked cooperative marks, and for a moment the idea of pulling one over Scal's head overrode her better senses.

Then she leaned past Scal and let out a long, dramatic sigh.

"Right, right, yer bigger an' better. I en't gonna start a thing with some Blooming Stalk o' Tripe," Charley tossed her hands up, not all the way, offering the smallest admission of surrender to the young woman acting the part of copper in the moment. Charley probably wouldn't find anything of hers in there at this point, she figured that by now. Not like it would mean much to her by now, anyway. Stuffing her hands in her pockets instead, the urchin gave another shrug. Her ears hadn't heard much of anything from inside the shack for a while, and there wasn't any movement catching her eye either. "Seems to me like you'd best be doing the watchin'."

Charley tipped her chin to indicate the living space past Scal, "Wasn't it three of 'em, last I saw?"

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