28th February, 1890 — Museum of Magical Miscellany

Emrys had decided to spend his Friday-cum-Saturday doing some art browsing. He wasn't in the market for any new pieces for his own estate, but he did sometimes invest in a few pieces in order to send them elsewhere to be sold for better profit. He liked to think he had a good eye for what would sell and what wouldn't, and such ventures were rarely unprofitable for him. This particular artist had an exhibition at the Museum which he'd invited Emrys to view, so that was where he'd gone — after spending a few leisurely hours catching up on the latest trash in Witch Weekly and writing a few very tongue-in-cheek letters to the desperate souls who had written in looking for love. As though such things could be found browsing the pages of a magazine!

The art had been, in a world, underwhelming. That being said, he'd paid his entrance to the Museum that day and he hadn't been here recently — and he had nothing better to do for the moment — so he set about wandering the collections. He was in the middle of a small exhibit hall stuffed with magical relics of all shapes and sorts when, before his very eyes, the walls around him disappeared. Although he was unaware of it, the timeline effects had just caused this particular room of the Museum never to have been built — and as a result the room, and everything in it, had collapsed back into the muggle museum that surrounded it.

Well, he thought as he looked around to see which unsuspecting people had joined him. The Muggles were certainly going to be surprised. Hopefully no one tried to blame him for whatever happened next. Was he about to witness the start of the next iteration of the Muggle riots of 1877?

Maybe, he thought as he cast a glance around the hall, he could slip out before the chaos really started...

OOC: Open to anyone. Feel free to add some NPC Muggle reactions of whatever sort you like! Sooner or later I'd love Avery Wilkinson to join :)

  

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Lou made this! <3

Ginny was not usually a fan of the museum, usually the exhibits were boring and the people even more so! Some old fart with too much nose hair and not enough of an understanding of personal space would sidle up and try to tell her why this wooden thing from 1000 years ago was important or interesting. There were items in the Blackwood family estate that predated many of the museums items so she found it very difficult to be excited by them. Still she would occasionally go to play the role of the socialite with her mother, to make some donation or other, or to the opening of some exhibit to press the flesh and be seen with, and by, the right people.

Her mother had been meeting with one of the curators, some plan to loan a portrait from the Blackwood family gallery to the museum as part of an exhibit on wizarding explorers. Ginny had grown bored of the meeting and had wandered off to be a little less bored elsewhere in the museum. She wouldn’t have known good art from bad if she was being honest – as a young lady of breeding she could sketch and paint watercolours tolerably well and could recognise the works of a number of classical artists but had very little interest beyond that. The next room was a little more interesting - filled with odds and ends it seemed to her, the sort of thing her grandfather had loved and had himself collected. A few of the items in the cases were noted as ‘on loan from the estate of Ephrem Blackwood’ She had stopped in front of a primitive stone lie detector, a precursor to the sneak scope, that was from her grandfathers collection, when the room seemed to pop out of existence.

Ginny started, looking around desperately – the cases had changed, the magical items had all vanished, there were more people than before and the portly guard in his wizarding robes had disappeared replaced with a lanky man in muggle uniform. Ginny could feel herself starting to panic, she couldn’t apparate, having never had occasion to learn and didn’t know where she was!

Where did you come from?’ a man with a thick Yorkshire accent demanded of her, his eyes narrowed. She had appeared so close to him, that there was a very good chance she might have trod on his toes. ’You weren’t there a minute ago’ he followed up. Ginny flustered, mumbling apologies and trying to get away from him, but his arm snaked up and grabbed her wrist, his bony fingers cutting into her skin. ’Where did you come from?’ he demanded, louder this time.

’No where…I was here’ she insisted lamely, wondering if her subpar wand work would allow her to cast a confounding spell and slip away without even more of the muggles seeing her – or if that would simply make things worse.

  

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^  Look what Lady did  ^

Given the immediate sounds of confusion Emrys could hear around him, slipping away before anything got out of hand seemed to be exactly the order of the day. He turned and started to head vaguely in the direction that the entrance to the Museum of Magical Miscellany had been, before he'd been unceremoniously removed from it. Apparating out of the middle of a crowd of Muggles was bound to cause trouble, but if he could find his way back to the Museum he could use the floo in their lobby. Failing that, he supposed he'd have to just go outside and hope for the best. He didn't know, after all, if the Museum was still here, or whether the entrance had moved along with the room that he'd been in. If that was the case, he might fare better just walking out and finding his way back to Diagon Alley.

While luckily no one had taken an immediate notice to him, it seemed that another Museum patron up ahead had not been so lucky. Emrys was inclined to just leave it be and keep his own head down, but it was a girl — and one who didn't look very well equipped to handle herself in a strange situation, at that.

"Sorry," he said, inserting himself into the conversation with the Muggle man and taking the young redhead by the arm as though they'd arrived together. "She wanders," he explained to the man, then made a face as if to indicate that the girl wasn't all there. Easiest way to get out of a conversation you didn't want to be in, in his experience; bring up something that the other party wasn't comfortable with. For most people, mental disabilities fit the bill rather neatly.

  

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Lou made this! <3

Ginny about on the verge of real panic – her hand tightening reflexively on the wand in the pocket of her gown, about to start firing off curses, anything to extricate herself from this situation when her view of the muggle was cut off by a man inserting himself between them. In shock the muggle let go of her wrist and she snapped it back close to her chest as though his touch her burned her.

When he implied, she was mad she let out an exclamation of indignation, it was unbidden, and a knee jerk reaction to being called mad but picking up on the ruse she played along. ’I am Her Royal Highness Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld and I may wander where I please!’ she said as though admonishing the gentleman who had intervened. She ruffeled for a moment and then laying a hand on the gentlemans arm huffed in righteous indignation ’Leave the brigand Edward we should go, the Duchess of Clarence awaits us for tea’ addressing the gentleman as the late Duke of Kent.

The muggle security guard gave the gentleman a sympathetic look, and took of his cap, to run it through his fingers. ’Very Good Sir’ he said in a low conspiratorial voice and then craning a little to meet Ginnys eyes added. ’Very sorry my lady’ his tone was loud, clear and obviously condescending ’Your Highness!’ she corrected, and turned her back on him to cover her laugh.

When the security guard wandered off to admonish a boy who was bouncing a ball in the viewing gallery, Ginevra stood close to the gentleman and dropped her voice, ’Thank you for that’ she said, and cast another glance around to confirm the fact that it was they who had moved to another location, and not muggles who were suddenly in the magical museum. ’However, would you possibly be able to tell me what is going on?’ she was smiling but her tone was intense and a still a little panicked.

Emrys Selwyn

  

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^  Look what Lady did  ^

Well, that was laying it on a bit thick, Emrys thought. He was worried that the man would seem suspicious at this obviously overblown act, but it didn't seem to faze him, and he moved on to someone else who was, apparently, making more trouble than this redhead was with her loud exclamations. So far, so good.

Emrys fully intended to disentangle himself from her arm and move on once the man was out of sight, but she started to question him before they reached that stage. "No," he answered simply, striding along in the direction of the entrance to the magical museum and assuming she would either follow or let go of his arm. "Because I don't know."

The fact that they were in the muggle portion of the museum at this point seemed fairly obvious, so he didn't think it bore repeating. How they had gotten there, or why, was still quite the mystery to him, and he never cared to speculate on mysteries with strangers.

  

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Lou made this! <3

It took her a moment to realise the gentleman was already moving away from her. His pace was rapid and Ginny, in her heavy skirts and bustle, had to hurry to keep up with him. Was he trying to ditch her now?

He didn’t know….didn’t know! What use was that? The momentary levity of the ruse having passed Ginny was still as freaked out as before -they were discernably not in the museum – they were surrounded by muggles and she had no one of getting home. Her only real option, if left to her own devices was to cause enough magical havoc to bring aurors and hope the ministry would be able to fix it and get her home – all without throwing her in prison.

’and who are you?’ she asked, she was placing a lot of faith on the fact this man wasn’t a) involved in their sudden vanishing act and b) not a lunatic. ’I know you are…’ she dropped her voice again, ’like me, you were in the museum…before….when it was properly the museum’ she explained while trying to hurry along beside him. Realising that honey was capable of enticing more flies, Ginny decided her best bet was flattery and friendship.

  

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^  Look what Lady did  ^

Asking for his name was an entirely reasonable request, given the circumstances, but it wasn't one Emrys felt particularly inclined to indulge. He hadn't been planning on throwing a tea party with some redheaded debutante this afternoon, after all; he was not in the right mental headspace to socialize or make good impressions.

"No one of import," he said offhandedly, continuing to walk. That was the best way to keep them from being noticed by the Muggles, he figured; just keep moving and hope for the best. He didn't know the layout of the Muggle museum very well, since he had never spent any time there aside from going to and from the magical museum, and even that was a very rare occurrence. Still, he thought they were close to where the entrance would be, assuming it was still there. One more room, and maybe a turn. Hopefully the entrance was still there, or the lady he was dragging along could apparate herself home from a cleaning closet. He didn't particularly fancy having to keep her in tow all the way to Diagon Alley and possibly beyond.

"Emrys Selwyn," he added after a moment, reflecting that it wasn't particularly fair not to at least introduce himself. It might add to her stress level and make her more likely to panic — which would make her more difficult to deal with, he thought. Best to avoid that.

  

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Lou made this! <3

She noted the name, it sounded vaguely familiar, like she recognised the surname but not the man himself. The Selwynns were one of those ‘old’ families – like her own they went back further than anyone cared to remember. Although neither his blood status nor his position in society fully vindicated him from culpability in their being here. But it did mean that she wasn’t likely to be burned at the stake -and right now that was enough.

’If you slowed you might look a little less suspicious?’ she breathed, trying not to sound harsh but equally fighting off a stitch that was forming beneath her ribs from the action of half running in a tight corset. The number of muggles decreased in number as they cleared the exhibit, where the entrance to the magical antiquities wing should have met the rest of the magical museum – but instead there was nothing but more muggle nonsense. The rest of the museum wasn’t there!

Where the lobby and the welcome witch should have been was instead an area that was dedicated to the ‘Insects of Britain’. It appeared as though the muggles weren’t interested in this exhibit any more than she was, but it would hopefully give them a moment to regroup. ’It appears as though we are entirely in mu…’ she stopped herself from saying it just in case someone could overhear, but couldn’t think of an inconspicuous word ’central London’. Ginevra couldn’t help but ring her hands at the prospect. ’Where even is the nearest...eh fireplace’ from here.

  

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^  Look what Lady did  ^

Well, that was damn inconvenient. Where on earth had the Museum gotten off to? It didn't seem likely that it had just suddenly ceased to exist (though, in magical England, nearly anything was possible). Perhaps it had just gone and moved itself somewhere, but it was unfortunate that it had decided not to take him with it when it did. Even a difference of ten feet could have made the room he'd been in and the entrance exist in a different space than they had previously. He didn't particularly want to just go poking around the Muggle museum looking for the entrance, though, particularly given that he had no reason to believe it was even in this museum. Suppose it had gone and moved itself to Wales, or Germany, or some other unlikely place?

No, the best course of action seemed to be Diagon Alley, much as he didn't want to drag this girl all the way over there. He'd introduced himself now, though, so he couldn't just abandon her. If she ended up in trouble and had to be rescued by aurors, or something — or worse, got herself into trouble and had to have the Ministry come intervene before she caused an Incident, or something — she'd be able to tell them that he'd left her all alone in the Muggle museum. Which probably wasn't a crime, or anything, but it was more of a headache than he wanted to deal with at the moment.

"The Leaky Cauldron," he said in resignation. He'd have to walk a bit slower as they left the museum, too, because she was right; it was less suspicious and they had a long way to go.

  

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Lou made this! <3

Ginny could count on one hand the number of times she had visted the leaky cauldron - it wasn't really somewhere that well bred young ladys spent much, of their time. Not if they wanted to continue to be considered well bred young ladies. Usually a house elf, would magically transport them to Diagon Alley, wait in the appropriate spot and then take them home again. Neither Ginny, nor her mother particularly liked using the flu at the best of times! On this occaision it didn't seem beggers could be chooser and it was better than being stuck in muggle london for any longer than was absolutely necessary

'It sounds far, when we get outside we should get a cab' she said in a rather forthright fashion, she didn't carry muggle money, but she was glad this morning that her maid had put on a particularly ugly pair of silver earrings. 'We can walk a bit, claim we were robbed and see if the cabbie will take these to take us to The Cauldron', she set above removing the earrings. They were expensive enough pieces, enough to get a train ticket back to Scotland, but Ginny didn't like them anyway and if it saved her the walk through the muddy streets of muggle London she would like to avoid it.

While she wasn't a purist she certainly didn't hold any love in her heart for regular old muggles, and if she was honest her lack of exposure to them meant that in her mind the average work a day, muggle going about his business was a boogey man, just waiting for the oppertunity to get his hands on a witch to burn them! The muggles in Irvingly...well they didn't count properly did they.

  

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^  Look what Lady did  ^

Emrys hadn't been paying too much attention to her as he navigated them back towards the street entrance of the museum, but a slight tug on his arm alerted him that she was reaching up for something, and when he looked over he was quite surprised to find her in the middle of removing a garish pair of earrings.

"Oh, honestly," he said, shaking his head in exasperation at the sudden dramatics. She was keen to get them off and make up another silly story, when really none was required. He supposed this might have been the most exciting thing to have happened to her all season, so he couldn't really blame her for taking full advantage, but he was hardly in the mood to set up more theatrics.

"Put those back on," he said firmly. "I've got money, if you really want a cab. It's not much of a walk, though," he mentioned (though he acknowledged that his definition of what could be considered a long walk and hers might differ significantly). "We're certainly not telling some Muggle we were robbed."

  

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Lou made this! <3

Ginny looked slightly aghast, what gentleman carried ready money! And what magical gentleman carried muggle money. It was the equivalent of being informed he routinely wore bloomers under his suit trousers. She was truely horrified. Still if he would insist on being gallant she deposited the earrings into her small purse with a shrug.

'Alright me then sir', she said rather facetiously, 'If you already know how far we are from the Cauldron, then please enlighten me?' she said, her tone on the softer edge of clipped, but clearly growing frustrated with his snippy attitude. 'a moment ago you didn't know where we were and now it's only a short walk to The Cauldron? We could be in Bromley, or heaven forbid New Cross!' she exasperated, 'I don't much fancy a 2 hour trek across muggle london to get to Charring Cross!'

The following 1 user Likes Ginevra Blackwood's post:1 user Likes Ginevra Blackwood's post
   Emrys Selwyn

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^  Look what Lady did  ^

'What, you want me to draw you a street map?" he asked, with a good deal of snark. He didn't know where she'd gotten that bit about him having claimed to not known where they were, because he had said no such thing. He didn't know where the Museum was, but that was a different matter entirely. It appeared to have moved; they had not. If she didn't know where they were, she didn't know much about the Museum in the first place — but that was, perhaps, allowable. With floos in the lobby, there was no reason anyone outside of London would have to come in through the Muggle Museum, and therefore no particular cause to know which Museum it was, much less where it was in London.

"We'll get a cab," he said in exasperation as they neared the street entrance of the Museum. "Just keep your jewelry on and your mouth closed, if you would, until we're inside it."

  

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Lou made this! <3

Clearly the two had a very different view of what had occurred to bring them here. And she didn’t think he was right, and had been about to tell him as much when he made his next comment. Ginny’s eyes narrowed behind his back, being told to keep her mouth closed was not something she was used to, and certainly not with such brutish rudeness. Her teeth were grit behind her pressed lips.

’Lets just get through this shall we.’ she bit out with as much control over her tone as she could muster. She didn’t see why, with the unexpected change to their current location, why they shouldn’t expect other changes to have occurred outside – and she still wasn’t entirely over the fact that he carried ready money. Only the poor and ner’do wells couldn’t rely on their name and credit to get them by. She wondered if she ought to keep a hold of a hat pin or something. She didn’t know enough about Selwyn to take anything for granted.

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( its meh - very sorry)

  

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^  Look what Lady did  ^

"Agreed," Emrys said, gratified that she wouldn't be making any more hare-brained recommendations, at least for the next few minutes. There was no telling what might occur to her once they were outside and in the cab, but they'd cross that bridge when they came to it.

  

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Lou made this! <3