August 3rd, 1895 - Outside Diagon Alley Post Office

Thread roulette for Ramona Pendergast and Poppy MacFusty

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Outside the Post Office, a large, intelligent-looking crow has snagged a brightly colored, unsealed letter from a dropped satchel and is now perched on the roof, seemingly taunting its owner who had long since entrusted it for delivery. From this angle it was impossible to see the writing on the front of the envelope, could the elaborate script on the front be someone high profile? Could it be someone about to receive salacious news from a secret courtesan? Who knew? Not the crow, and from the gleaming in its eye, nor did it care.

Alys watched the crow for a moment as she clutched a pair of books to her chest. She wondered what it might be doing, was the letter not meant to be secret? Perhaps the choir thought it better that the world found out.

"Here little bird, come to Alys..." she spoke, probably not loudly enough to attract its attention. She pulled out her pendant, starstone wrapped in silver and began to twiddle it round in her fingers to let it catch the light. Crows loved trinkets, if she could only lure it into dropping its curious cargo just for a moment. The bird glanced over, but had it noticed her?

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The house felt a little empty now that Kaat had gone to live with her father and his family in Ireland. Mo desperately wanted to visit; her Mama's family lived in Ireland too, so they could easily just drop by, but she wasn't sure if it would be alright. Most families did not have the same pop-in sort of welcome that her house did. Fortunately it was only a little less than a month until they were back to school and hopefully things would settle down.

Today she was running errands with her Papa and after stopping at the quidditch shop and the book store for some things for school, they needed to stop quickly at the post office. Then they would get ice cream. It was worth the boring stops, honestly.

Papa went into the post office and Mo was waiting in the shade beside the building when another girl, probably close in age to her, was talking to something. It took Mo a minute to realize it was a crow. "Is that letter yours?" She asked curiously, peering up at the corvid with interest.

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   Alys Gower

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Poppy had been eager to get her school supplies from Diagon Alley, and finally, that day had arrived. Her father had just popped into a nearby shop that sold dragonkeeping supplies (he was always needing a new pair of gloves, it seemed.) She'd been excited that he'd agreed to let her stand outside and browse the windows of nearby shops. Thankfully, her mother was home with Poppy's little brothers, or else she was sure she would have had to go inside with him. This taste of independence gave her a little thrill, enough of one that when she came upon two girls, she actually approached them.

It seemed that a crow had a letter it shouldn't. Possibly it even belonged to the smaller one? Poppy stepped forward and said so quietly it was likely neither of them could hear her, "Would you like some help retrieving it?"

  

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Alys heard the other voices and she snapped out of staring at the bird who seemed now to be responding to her fiddling pendant and had taken a few tentative steps towards the little girl, twisting it head and making muffled cawing noises. It hadnt dropped the letter yet.

"No... its not mine, but I dont think its his either and I want to see." came her sweet Welsh accent to the first girl. "Yes please." she said to the other with a mischievous grin on her face. The bird was so close to dropping it, Alys could feel the secrets about to tumble into their hands.

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Ramona Pendergast Poppy MacFusty

  

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Mo frowned a little. If the letter didn't belong to the girl, why would she want it? "We probably shouldn't mess with it, letters are private." Even Mo, who had a twin and shared just about everything with someone, knew some things weren't meant to be seen by others. She would be devastated if she wrote something meant only for a single person, only to find out someone else had read it!

She noticed the other girl, an unfamiliar redhead, though both of the other girls looked close in age, possibly younger, since Mo didn't recognize them from Hogwarts. She shrugged at them both as if to say she wasn't going to interfere, but she also wasn't keen to help if it didn't belong to one of them.

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Oh... it didn't belong to her? Why did she want it, then? Poppy hesitated, her eyes meeting the taller girl's as she spoke. On one hand she was torn, she'd already said she was going to help. On the other, letters were private and it was clear that this one was not intended for her. What did she do now? Poppy felt her cheeks grow warm into what she knew would be a brilliantly bright flush.

Her brows furrowed as she attempted to sort things out, immediately resorting to her eldest sister demeanor. She often sorted out spats between her brothers, surely she could be helpful now. "Um.." She nervously tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear, "I-Is there a particular reason that you, um, want the letter?"

  

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The small girl looked thoughtful at the question. "I don't know why I want it, I just... do" she said quietly as the crow inched ever closer to the shiny bauble around her neck, she could see the bright spark in the eyes of the little bird, such an intelligent little creature.

Her hand flexed and she snatched away her necklace causing the bird to caw and drop the letter before flapping away from the little trio of young girls. Alys reached down and picked up the envelope. She wiped the dirt off of it and turned it around in her hands. The name and address meant nothing to her, somewhere called Wellingtonshire? "If fate had wished you to be a secret, would they have sent you to me?" she asked the letter as she ran her fingers along the seal, made of hardened red wax. She looked at the other two with a sparkle in her eye. "Anyone else want to see?"

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Ramona Pendergast Poppy MacFusty

  

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"I really don't think you ought to," Mo warned gently. The other girl seemed quite intent on reading whatever was in there. ""Some people jinx their mail." She'd seen her Ma do it to her uncles a time or two, when they vexed her (or she was in the mood). Nothing bad, usually, but enough to make people think twice. One time her Grandmum had opened it and the howler her mum had gotten in reply had been really funny. Gran's nose had swelled up like she'd been stung by a dozen bees and so it had sounded extra laughable.

She looked at the third girl in their party helplessly. At least she didn't seem as keen to read someone else's post.

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That wasn't a particularly good reason to want to read someone else's mail. Poppy's mother would think it very bad manners, in fact. Thankfully, the girl who seemed to agree with her had a logical rebuttal. Poppy nodded enthusiastically, "That's true. You wouldn't want to get jinxed. Or it could be a... a howler. Wouldn't want one of those either."

She didn't respond to the question about whether she wanted to see what was inside. Honestly, part of her was curious. How could she not be? But that wasn't a good enough reason to have poor manners. She looked at the girl who was the voice of reason again, "Maybe we should.. um... ask an adult?" Surely an adult would know just what to do in this situation.

  

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Alys responded to the other girls warning but still didn't take her eyes off of her prize. "Fascinating, my mother uses those..." she said loudly before beginning to mumble something in Latin so quietly it could only have been aimed at the letter and then listening for its response.

"I do not believe this letter to contain any jinxes or curses." she had nothing to go on but her own conviction and the imaginary muggle magic she had been taught. Then she stopped to respond to Poppy. "Maybe... what is a howler?" she had never heard that term before but then there was a lot of terms she had been hearing. Maybe this letter of temptation was sent to teach in a way that did not involve reading?

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Ramona Pendergast Poppy MacFusty

  

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Mo exchanged a look with the girl not holding the letter... this was getting a little weird. "It doesn't really work like that? Usually you have to trigger the jinx by opening it or something." Mo warned, but if the girl was bent on continuing, she might have to learn the hard way.

She didn't think it was a howler either, she'd seen her mum send one of those two, when her uncle was being annoying. There was no crossing Aoife Pendergast without retribution, that she knew. "Usually a howler has a red envelope and it yells at you. If you don't open it soon enough it explodes." Which she wouldn't like either, but she definitely didn't think it was a howler.

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Well, they'd both ignored her suggestion to find an adult. It had been a good idea, and she was slightly offended that neither had even responded to it. Her freckled cheeks flushed. Maybe it had been a foolish thing to say. Maybe asking for an adult when all three were on their own was a thing that babies did. And then she had made another mistake. Only knowing of them from being mentioned off-handedly in a book, she hadn't realized they were a specific color. She flushed further, her pulse beating rapidly as her shoulders curved forward. How embarrassing!

Poppy shifted her weight to the other foot uncomfortably, but she said nothing. It was better to say nothing than to say one more thing that made her look silly. Besides, it seemed like the letter was going to get opened, despite their warnings.

  

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"A letter that shouts at you?" she turned and smiled at the eldest of the three, broken from looking at the letter. There was an excited look in her eyes. "I think I might like to see one of those." she chattered. This world was proving to be fun already. She shared her grin to the other and furrowed her brow at her a little as Poppy blushed.

She weighed up her options, one girl was decidedly against opening it, the other seemed embarrassed with the whole situation, and no little tidbit from this letter was worth making enemies at her new school so early. "Perhaps we dont open it? she said abruptly. "Shall we hand it to the postmaster?" the door to the post office was nearby, it wouldn't be a mission to pop inside past all the grown ups and return it back to its intended route.

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Ramona Pendergast Poppy MacFusty

  

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Mo chuckled. Having never been on the receiving end of a howler, she doubted it would be pleasant. "My uncle begs to disagree." Her mother's youngest brother had received at least one that Mo knew about; she'd heard her mother shouting while creating it one time. Sometimes it was hard to tell with her mum's side of the family if they were actually yelling or just being Loud. Something she had inherited and tried to make sure she didn't abuse too often.

"I think that is the best plan." Finally everyone was starting to see reason. She didn't want to get in trouble for opening anything that didn't belong to her. Even if it was a rather fascinating bird that had it in the first place. That was perhaps the most peculiar part.

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   Alys Gower

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Oh thank goodness! Poppy wasn't sure what had caused the girl to actually follow their suggestions, but she also didn't question it. The relief that they weren't about to do something against the 'rules' was enough for her. She nodded eagerly in agreement, "Yes, very mature."[/b] That was what every child their age wanted, wasn't it? To be viewed and treated as adults and not babies anymore.

Though... her younger brothers would often agree to something and do the complete opposite. Rather than wait for this idea to cross the first girl's mind, Poppy encouraged, "Perhaps we do that now before the bird comes back?" Thankfully, that was exactly what the trio did. The postmaster had been rather confused about it, but in the end it was returned to a proper adult. And then, they all went their separate ways. It was only after she was reunited with her father that Poppy realized she'd never even asked the girls' names.

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   Alys Gower

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Club Membership in: Astronomy • Flying • Charms • Book • Quidditch

Adorably sweet set by the amazing Lady!