March 3rd, 1891 — Podmore Zoological Gardens

If Ben hadn't known better, he might have thought Jewell was fucking with him. Maybe he had drawn up a list of people Ben probably didn't want to talk to, and was sending him out on targeted asks either to them or near them just for the hell of it. It wouldn't have been difficult to come up with a list; so many of his past liaisons with women were common knowledge, because of the way people talked. The one with Bella Scrimgeour had been particularly high-profile, so if Jewell was making a list, she would have been on it without a doubt.

Probably, Jewell wasn't trying to screw with him. He had a good reason for the visit to the Zoological Gardens today, at least in theory. The zoo hosted events often enough, and the New Year's Eve party had been a fairly large contract for Jewell. They usually had some sort of fundraising event in the spring, before traffic picked up during the summer, so he was here to snoop around about their upcoming event plans and maybe ply the managers with a few free samples of the newer Jewell lines, and if he was really lucky, get them to sign another big contract deal. Those were his employer's goals, anyway. Ben's goals, on the other hand, were to avoid both Bella Scrimgeour and Una Walsh, if he could. If he did have to see either of them, he was definitely going to avoid drinking with them — the run-in with Ellory a few days earlier was more than enough of that for one week. Especially when he was trying so hard to be good.

He had managed to get through the zoo and to the door of the offices without incident — or, almost. Where he was used to finding the door, Ben now saw only a blank brick wall. Had they moved something, or was this only some sort of magical trick? He reached out and tentatively touched the brick, but it seemed fairly solid.

And, of course, who should come around the corner except Bella Scrimgeour herself? Obviously. Obviously.

"Hi," he said, a little sheepish. "Someone remodeling?"

Bella Scrimgeour

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   Cassius Lestrange

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When she'd first started working at the zoo, her superiors had been hesitant to allow her to be seen by the public eye. By most standards she was a fallen woman, and the only reason she'd found employment there was the kindness of the a few of the magizoologist who'd been willing to vouch for her. Now a year had passed, and her scandal had fallen out of recent memory. She was allowed to move as she pleased, when she pleased, as long as she got her work done, and some days that was easier said than done. Many days she found herself in the office writing reports for injuries she'd sustained while on the job, while other times she was sent in to be reminded of various milestones she'd have to achieve before she could graduate from her apprenticeship. Never having become an official anything, she rather assumed she would be an apprentice forever—who would expect her to be an expert anyways?

She was grumpy when she left the office that day, but not so grumpy that she couldn't push her feelings aside to greet the public with a smile. Even when the "public" was none other than Ben Crouch.

Bella did not hate Ben Crouch, but neither did she fancy herself as fond of him as she once had. Not that she should; he was married and she was - different. A different person entirely, really. She'd been the driving force of the chaos in their brief attachment, and she still felt residual embarrassment over it, especially since she did fancy herself more mature and whole than she'd once been. The sight of him was enough to stop her in her tracks, and she stared straight ahead at him (she always seemed to forget that he wasn't very tall) and blinked.

It took a moment to recover from the surprise, but once she did she managed a hesitant smile and shook her head, "No, just building a barricade. It's almost erumpant mating season," she replied in jest, her lips slipping into a thoughtful frown.

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She seemed about as excited to see him as he was to see her, which was good. Not that he wanted things to be terribly awkward, but if they were on the same page about the fact that they probably shouldn't talk, at least it meant they could get through this interaction quickly and painlessly. This was different from his conversation with Ellory earlier that week, anyway, where she had been all smiles and sunshine and personal questions he didn't really want to ask her about.

"So how do I get inside?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. He thought she was joking about the erumpant barrier, but he couldn't really be entirely sure. She wasn't as lively as he remembered her being, so even though it sounded like a joke it felt a little thin to him. Maybe that was just the way she was, now, though. Ben was certainly a little more grounded than he had been two years ago; not so quick to laugh as he had been, then. And she'd been through more than her fair share of shit since then, too.

  

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Bella had been working at the zoo since the past summer, and she couldn't recall ever seeing Ben. (It wasn't as if she was actively looking for him, she tried to reassure herself, but if he'd been there she would have taken note.) She mirrored his expression and put a hand on her hip. "They're in a meeting back there," she said, thought about acting as if it was something super important that she knew all about, but faltered at the last minute and added, "And - well, I don't think they're in the mood for visitors right now."

The guilty expression spoke what she didn't: she'd been the cause of their headaches. She couldn't admit it, though, not to the man who'd been forced to put up with her nonsense three (or was it four?) years prior. "If you need something, I might be able to help?"

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Ben's brow furrowed at not in the mood for visitors right now. Was that a joke? He couldn't tell with her, which was weird. Thinking back on their previous relationship, he seemed to remember that she'd always been an open book, but now he was having trouble reading her. Was the difference her, or him, or both?

"Not unless you've been promoted to event planner," he said with a wistful frown. Buying liquor wasn't just standard daily zoo business, anyway — not unless they had some interesting new exhibits that Ben hadn't heard about yet. "Did this — you think they vanished the door on purpose?" he clarified, looking at the blank wall a bit skeptically. "I'm, uh — I mean, seems a bit extreme. I don't vanish the door to my study when I'm working," he pointed out. Though maybe it wouldn't have been a bad practice — it would have prevented Melody from finding out about Elliott before he was ready to tell her. But, of course, he hadn't ever expected that she would be desperate enough to go through his things while he wasn't around.

  

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Apprentice magizoologist, zookeeper, tour guide, event planner—what difference did it all make? Bella did whatever she was asked to do, and sometimes things that were outside her job description, so she didn't know why this would be any difference apart from having to interact with Ben again. His questions had her chest tightening, and in a decidedly bad way. "Uh - yes," she admitted, casting an awkward glance at the wall behind her, "They do that sometimes. I may have - um - tried to go back in after they sent me away. In my defense, I had something important to say."

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— MJ is MAGICAL —

"Oh," Ben said, not sure how to respond to that immediately. So this was her fault. It still seemed a bit extreme, but suddenly it was making a whole lot more sense than just being standard business practice for any time anyone was working in the office.

"Well, that sounds just like you," he admitted. It was almost... encouraging, a bit, that at least in one respect she hadn't changed. The fact that the energy between them was so dramatically different had been throwing him off ever since this conversation started, but if she was still charging in and ordering people around when she had no rights to be there in the first place, at least in one respect she was still the same Rebel he'd known.

"Do you think I could leave a message for someone?" he asked, shifting his weight.

  

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Her gaze dropped to his shoes bashfully. She wasn't sure if she ought to take "sounds just like you" as a compliment or an insult; on one hand, she had grown up a lot since they'd last spoken and she ought to take offense, but on the other hand there were a lot worse things he could have said. She wrenched her gaze back up, only to glance over her shoulder at the door-less wall.

"I can take a message. Maybe I'll get back on their good side for delivering it," she said, perking up a little at the thought. She was curious as to why Ben was at the zoo, anyways, and being table to figure that out plus the prospect of having her boss not be angry at her anymore was too good a chance to refuse.

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"Alright, great," he said, turning his attention back to the wall. He fished one of his calling cards out of his pocket and a self-inking quill from another, then flipped the card over and started to scribble some things down. Wanted to discuss upcoming events at the zoo, new exotic liquor line that might interest them, he could get them a great price compared to the market cost. It was all the usual banter when he talked to big clients like this, condensed into a few short lines on the card.

Replacing the quill in his jacket, he blew on the note and then waved it lightly through the air, trying to make sure the ink dried before he handed it over to her. "They can write any time. I'm usually free with about a day's notice, or sometimes shorter if I'm not with another customer," he explained as he held it out. "And I'd love to continue that discussion I was having with Jonas last time about a custom brew, if he's still interested. I think it could really make the zoo parties pop," he continued. He had started to slide into salesman-talk, which was, he realized belatedly, probably not particularly useful given who he was talking to.

"Anyway," he said after a beat of slight awkwardness. "Thanks."

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   Bella Scrimgeour

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Taken aback by the sudden shift into his business pitch, Bella's eyebrows furrowed and she gave him an okay, weirdo sort of look, her lips turned upwards into an uncertain smile. She reached out and plucked the card out of his hand between her index and middle finger and twiddled it back and forth.

"Zoo parties and liquor sound like an... interesting mix," she teased, more to deflect from the awkwardness of the exchange than anything. She could only imagine Jonas downing a glass of custom whiskey, drunkenly to pet one of the diricrawls, and landing flat on his face when it disappeared into thin air. She let out a giggle, her nose scrunching up, but shook her head as to dismiss any questions that would come from it. "I will - thanks. And... good to see you, Ben. I'll see you around?"

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Ben smiled wryly at her first comment. "Any party and no liquor is an un-interesting mix," he countered easily. The zoo was a not-infrequent host for parties open to the general public (or general society, anyway) and they had always had some selection of alcohol available before, so it clearly wasn't that much of an issue. Maybe she meant hard liquor, which might have been more understandable, but all of Ben's favorite parties involved hard liquor so he was an advocate for it all the same. Jewell did sell champagne now, though — since Ben's successful partnership with the French company last spring, which had been the only good to come out of his 'honeymoon' in Paris.

The tone seemed to have shifted, because she was laughing now and said good to see you in a way that sounded genuine, but even with all of that he was still surprised when she called him Ben instead of Mr. Crouch. Partly it set him on edge, because he knew what Melody would have thought if she could have heard that — what anyone would have thought if they'd heard that, since his history with Bella Scrimgeour was more or less public knowledge — but partly it was almost a relief. It was slipping back just a little closer to the dynamic they'd had all those years ago, and while Ben wasn't particularly interested in revisiting that relationship, it did make him a little pleased to think that perhaps the person he was now wasn't so far removed from the person he'd been then.

"Yeah, good to see you, too," he said, with a quick smile. "Maybe you will."

  

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