March 3rd, 1891 — House of Lytton

Well, they had published it, which was something. Juliana didn't typically read Witch Weekly, though she had seen plenty of their issues in her recent foray into researching it, so she'd had to go and get a copy from a news stand for the express purpose of seeing whether or not her letter had made it into print. It had. That was good, she thought — she hoped it was good.

She wasn't worried that anyone would think she was responsible for the piece. She'd been quite desultory towards herself, specifically to head off that particular thought, and to try and make it sound credible. If it was sympathetic, it would have been suspect — which was why she had not been particularly kind to Lachlan MacFusty, either, though he had done his best to be kind to her despite the circumstances. Juliana believed the ends justified the means, and hopefully he could appreciate that. Now she just needed to ensure that the ends actually played out the way she wanted. No one was going to suspect that she was Meredith Watchword; but until they had more than one story to sink their teeth into, neither were they going to suspect that they ought to take Meredith Watchword's word as the gospel truth.

Luckily, her job put her in the way of all of the types of people society might care about. In her free time she was committed to digging up any dirt at all that there was to be found on Dorothy Finch (which she felt only a little bad about), but during the day she had her ear to the door of every dress fitting, looking for something else to snatch on to. She couldn't be too obvious, of course, because she didn't want to do anything to hurt the Lytton's business (any more than she already might have, by being caught out with Lachlan MacFusty in the garden on Valentine's Day and not being subsequently fired), but if she was careful, no one would know where she'd come by her information.

And it seemed she'd finally found something...

  

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Prof. Marlowe Forfang

Jules

Ellory had come to Lytton's to discuss her wardrobe for the coming season. Unless she died in childbirth, she was expecting a very fun summer full of partying. She had made a large order from Jewel Distillery in preparation to all the fun she would be having.

"Mr. Crouch mixed me this cocktail that I believe is his creation!" Ellory told Camilla Lytton as the other woman paced around a mannequin with a first draft so to speak of a potential dress. "I'm definitely going to host a cocktail party this summer. Do you suppose he might agree to make me the cocktail list? We were great friends once, you know."

Camilla said something about it and then they talked about some vibrant coloured fabrics Lytton had brought in recently. Camilla excused herself to fetch a swatch book, leaving Ellory alone.

  

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SET BY MJ

If she had been sketching out the ideal piece for her subsequent letter, she would not necessarily have chosen Reuben Crouch. Not because she had any fondness for the man, having never met him, but rather because it would be too suspect if all of her letters seemed to target the Finch family. That said, her ear had immediately perked up at the mention of the name. She wasn't going to pass up a chance to get more gossip on the subject; it might be necessary to go after Mrs. Finch again, depending on how things played out, and she wanted as much in her arsenal as possible.

It was rather convenient that there seemed to be something to be learned from a woman who was already one of the least inhibited women among their clientele. Jules had been prepared to go to some lengths to get someone to talk, but with Ellory Lestrange that might not even be necessary.

She waited until Camilla left, then went into the fitting room with a prepared tray of tea and biscuits. "More tea while you wait, Mrs. Lestrange?"

  

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Prof. Marlowe Forfang

Jules

"Oh, thank you dear!" Ellory replied with a smile. Lytton's served such lovely biscuits that she couldn't pass up the chance.

As the tea was served, it occured to Ellory that this was the woman from the most recent issue of Witch Weekly. She knew that Juliana worked there, but she didn't actively think about how she worked there.

"You are the girl from that article!" Ellory commented as she picked up one oft he biscuits. She took a bite from it and then, with a half full mouth, she continued: "They ha be-ome so ru-less re-ently!" She swallowed. "It used to be 'Ten facts about Fitzroy Prewett' and stuff about Bella Scrimgeour - you know, an actual 'hussy' as they coined it - and now they're going after people! They wrote such horrible things about my friend Miss Belby!"

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   Juliana Ainsworth

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"Oh," Juliana said, with surprise that was only half feigned. She hadn't really been expecting Mrs. Lestrange to bring it up. It was rather tactless, really, but it did make transitioning into this next piece of the conversation much easier, so it wasn't as though Juliana was one to complain.

"Yes, I've had a terrible time of it," she said, looking at her shoes. She wished she had a biscuit at hand, but she couldn't snack on them while customers were watching. They were really the best biscuits, though, aside from the ones the Hogsmeade market sold in that little bakery stand on Tuesday mornings.

"But I wasn't the only one dragged into things. I'm sure Mr. MacFusty has had more attention than he would like — and Miss Finch and Mr. Crouch," she commented, hoping Mrs. Lestrange would pick up on the bait to elaborate a bit more on her feelings about Mr. Crouch. She'd told Camilla that they were great friends, which was news to Juliana, and she'd spent an hour trying to dig up various sorts of dirt on the man from old Witch Weekly articles just due to his association with Mrs. Finch.

  

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Prof. Marlowe Forfang

Jules

"They are easy targets," Ellory commented and then took a bite off a second biscuit. She chewed a bit, then: "Mr. Ma-usty a-er tha Qui-itch ma-" She swallowed. "And Mr. and Mrs. Crouch are just so easy, after they eloped. Which is rather unfair for them, because Mr. Crouch is now a family man who works hard to provide for his family. He looks so tired these days."

He didn't have that glow that scoundrelous bachelors had. He had also seemed rather restrained in her home, which made sense, she supposed. Still, she wished people could be as unfiltered as she was.

  

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SET BY MJ

Juliana mused over the phrase easy targets. Did that opinion work in her favor, or not? She wanted people who read the article to believe it, because the story that was contained within held nothing particularly scandalous about her and Mr. MacFusty, but floated possibilities about other people. Turning their attention towards those other people and away from her had been her goal, but if those who read it were inclined to just discount the entire thing out of hand, it wouldn't do half as much good. It might still work, because at least it would make anything Marianne Finch had to say on the subject less interesting, but it might not entirely stem the trickle of rumors, or restore her mother to her good standing in the social circles of catty middle aged English witches.

(Really, she had done all of this for her Mama, not for herself; she didn't care if she ever got invited to another party again as long as she lived).

"Did you know him well, before he married?" she asked innocently. "He was too old to have been at Hogwarts with you, wasn't he?"

  

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Prof. Marlowe Forfang

Jules

"We were friends," Ellory replied with a smile. More than friends, but she wouldn't go telling people of her inappropriate letters with Ben Crouch. "There was an accident with one of his portkeys. He'd left it at the tennis courts of the Irvingly Casino where I go to play and I was transported to this abandoned temple in Mexico and he saved me from a hoard of inferi!" That seemed as an innocent enough thing to share with Marcus Lytton's personal assistant.

"We would dance at balls and such - you know, as people do before they start families! We haven't really spoken much since we both married, but I wanted to fill my celar for the upcoming Season and it he happened to work for Jewel Distillery, so he was very helpful! He made some great cocktails that I intend to feature in my summer events! It was so strange you know, to see someone after such a long time! He seemed so... Tired and mature!"

  

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SET BY MJ

Well, that was certainly intriguing. It wasn't anything she had heard before, and it was the sort of thing that she thought people would care about — people meaning the sorts of people who read Witch Weekly, anyway. Mrs. Lestrange had had so little compunction in telling it to her, however, that Juliana wondered if it was really much of a secret. Suppose this was all old news? It wouldn't do if Meredith Watchword seemed to be behind the times on everything except the happenings in the garden on Valentine's Day. And then, speaking of old news, there was another problematic piece of this: why bring it up now? No, if she wanted to write about this she would need some better hook for it. Maybe something to do with how Mrs. Lestrange kept suggesting that Mr. Crouch was tired. Was that code for something, maybe?

"Goodness, what an adventure!" she said with what she hoped was an appropriately enthusiastic tone. In the meantime, her mind was working to try and determine how best to springboard from this into something more useful. "It must have been quite the experience, reconnecting with someone who had been so important to you. It's a shame he seemed... what was it you said? Tired?"

  

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Prof. Marlowe Forfang

Jules

"Mmm," Ellory made. "He used to be so charming, so fun loving, a bit of a tease. He seemed tired to me. I suppose having the responsibility of heading a family does that to a person." She pondered a bit and then remembered an instance from her meeting with Ben. "I think he and Mrs. Crouch might experience difficulties at increasing their family size. I asked him how they are doing on that front, but he seemed uncomfortable." No wonder, Ellory. "They might experience biological difficulties, I suppose... Or financial. That would explain why he seemed so tired, don't you think?"

  

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SET BY MJ

"It certainly would," Juliana agreed. She was unsure whether to treat these comments as potential leads to be investigated or only as idle speculation... it was difficult to tell from Mrs. Lestrange's tone which camp she thought they fell into, and Juliana had no personal knowledge of Mr. Crouch or of his wife on which to make judgements about either.

"Do you know Mrs. Crouch well?" she asked, setting the tea tray down on a nearby table and extending a hand for Mrs. Lestrange's cup, to refill it.

  

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Prof. Marlowe Forfang

Jules

Ellory let Miss Binns refill her cup.

"I know of her," Ellory replied. "But we don't really know each other, no. She was a year or two bellow me at Hogwarts, but in a different house and had other friends. Mr. Crouch certainly has a type, though." She grinned mischievously.

  

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SET BY MJ

Juliana raised an eyebrow at this, as she poured the tea. "Really? I wouldn't have thought you and Mrs. Crouch had much in common. Or did you mean... well, I suppose he's had some other... interactions," she finished, with a slight flush to her cheeks that was entirely feigned — she'd had to bite the inside of her lip hard to force the color up. She wasn't one to follow scandal normally, but after digging through so many copies of Witch Weekly in preparation for writing her own article, she couldn't help but find a handful of little insinuations here and there about Mr. Crouch's rakish history. How many of them were true, she wouldn't dare to guess — but she had evidence of at least one of them right before her, unlikely as it seemed to think the heavily pregnant and presumably happily married woman in the fitting room had gone cavorting around Mexico with a rake in her youth.

  

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Prof. Marlowe Forfang

Jules

Outwardly, Ellory and Mrs. Crouch didn't have much in common, other than their age and despotic mothers. They looked nothing alike, appearance wise and Melody Crouch didn't have a reputation for eccentricity.

"Mr. Crouch was a very charming man before settling down," Ellory commented. "And he was quite successful among us debs. I suppose he was like a book character. The charming scoundrel with the heart of gold who holds the potential to bring adventure to a young girl's life. He had this way of making you feel special."

  

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SET BY MJ

A way of making you feel special, Juliana thought cynically. Because women raised with a silver spoon in their mouths, who had no need to work a day in their life or face any particular hardships, really needed someone to make them feel special. That was neither here nor there, though; she wasn't aiming to bring down the whole structure of society. Not at the moment, anyway.

"That sounds very romantic," she gushed, pushing her real feelings on the matter down. "And he certainly did bring adventure to you, with the whole trip to Mexico. Do you think he still has... an adventurous spirit?" she asked, one eyebrow raised. What she wanted to ask was did he suggest anything inappropriate, but she couldn't come right out and say it directly — and had no reason to think that Mrs. Lestrange would answer her, even if she did.

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   Kieran Abernathy

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Prof. Marlowe Forfang

Jules

Ben hadn't been like his old self, who would flirt and write dirty letters. He had seemed somewhat reserved and tired. Even Ellory could understand that he couldn't have just flirted with her, when they were both married and she to a Lestrange no less.

However, she did remember a particular bit during their interaction. "He called me Pixie at some point, you know," Ellory said, furrowing her eyebrows and then releasing the tension to smile at her. "It was this nickname he had for me."

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   Reuben Crouch

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