November 21st, 1891 - Bartonburg [near the Potts home]

This was, more than anything, a sign that his life was beginning to spin out of control.

By now, Daff had to be home, and hopefully she was resting. He couldn't go to see her, though, because — well, how would he even begin to explain that to her family, or to his, or to anyone? They hadn't caught the man who attacked the Florist Potts. (Just like they hadn't caught Verity's kidnapper, just like they hadn't caught Noble or Henrietta, just like —)

But even knowing that he couldn't go inside to visit her, even knowing that letters could not begin to patch anything up, Noble was unable to prevent himself from walking by the Potts house. It wasn't like he could learn anything from the house, so he would just walk by it and it would be fine, except then instead of walking by it he found himself standing across the street.

He couldn't stop himself, it was like his feet were rooted to the spot as he tried to prevent himself from looking at the house. But he wanted to look, didn't he? He wanted to look, because really he wanted to go inside, but he couldn't do that.

Noble had been standing and looking at his watch for over a minute when he heard footsteps, and startled.

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The following 1 user Likes Noble Greengrass's post:1 user Likes Noble Greengrass's post
   Elsie Kirke

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set by Bee

It had been a couple days and Jack still hadn't gotten the hang of this sling business.  The pair of daisies Miss Potts had tucked into it made it look a bit more whimsical but living with it was still a royal pain.  He had gotten the hang of, if not completely mastered, dressing with a bum arm though doing up any buttons still took an infuriating amount of time.  And of course there were various spells he used to get by but there were plenty of small struggles that he was still surprised by.

Seen to the door of the Potts home and bid a happy good day, he paused in their front garden for a moment as the door closed behind him.  He was laden down with several parcels of food, from baked goods to full-on leftovers,  and he stood there deciding if he wanted to make the trip back to Pennyworth with both his hands completely occupied.

Obviously that answer was no.  Hogsmeade was a safe place, generally speaking, but you just never knew when someone shady was going to see a pick-pocket opportunity in an obviously injured person.  'Another strike against this wretched thing' he thought to himself as he moved to the garden wall to empty his hands.  Speaking of shady people he noted a young man standing across the street checking his watch as Jack set about shrinking each of the parcels. Once each was small enough, he was able to carry one in his bad hand and arrange the rest neatly in the sling as if it were some kind of carrying pack.  'One point for it, I guess.' he mused to himself with a quiet huff of laughter. 

The amusement slowly faded from his face, replaced by a furrow of suspicion as he looked up once more and realized the young man was still there across the road… and still checking his watch.  And was he reading into it or did he seem tense and uneasy?  Jack left the front garden and made his way to the road, casually keeping his eye the watch-gazer, who was still not moving.

"Mr. Greengrass?" he hedged, when he got close enough to get a good look at his face, unsure if he fully recognized him.  "You alright?" 

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The following 2 users Like Jack Dorset's post:2 users Like Jack Dorset's post
   Daffodil Grimstone, Noble Greengrass

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His shock faded quickly, and Noble registered the sling before he registered everything else. There were flowers poking out of the sling, little daisies, that looked awfully familiar, and it was that detail more than anything else that helped him identify the other man. "Constable Woodcroft," he said, with an easygoing smile.

Assuming this was Constable Woodcroft and Noble hadn't just done something very awkward, he must be coming from the Potts house. There was a flash of jealousy in Noble's gut even though he had basically never spoken to most of Daffy's siblings or parents, and even though the jealousy was silly — Daff ended things, they were over, and it wasn't like anything along those lines could happen with a Constable, anyways.

He registered all of this was very quickly, and tried to conjure an excuse for being here after just a beat passed. "Everything's alright," Noble said, still easygoing, "I'm supposed to meet someone here but I think they're running late." And never mind that this was a weird place to meet someone.

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The following 1 user Likes Noble Greengrass's post:1 user Likes Noble Greengrass's post
   Elsie Kirke

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set by Bee

"Close." he conceded with a wry grin.  "Constable Dorset - though I'm not on duty so just Dorset at the moment."  He was relieved to hear the plausible excuse that came so easily… though it was a very strange place to be meeting someone. 

"It is Greengrass right?" He asked with a squint.  School was so many years ago and the fact that he didn’t seem to remember Jack had him second guessing himself.  Then again, ever since he'd moved to Hogsmeade and spent so much time with the people here it felt like he'd become reacquainted with many of the people he'd gone to Hogwarts with.  "We went to school together? You tutored Miss Potts in potions?"

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The following 1 user Likes Jack Dorset's post:1 user Likes Jack Dorset's post
   Daffodil Grimstone

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Oh, shit, he had gotten the name wrong. At least the constable seemed good natured about it.

"That's me," Noble confirmed. "I remember you now, Dorset." He grinned. He didn't know why, other than the explosion at the Florist Potts, the constable's first association with him would be with Daffodil. But maybe that was it — maybe Dorset and Daffodil had trauma-bonded after the explosion that evidently involved both of them. Noble felt another flash of jealousy. He needed to get the topic away from Daffy, though — because this constable remembered him as Daffodil Potts' potions tutor, and because Noble had no real reason other than Daff for being on the sidewalk tonight. (Well — Daff and his fictional friend.)

"I think I was a year or two above you?" Noble asked. Dorset hadn't been a Gryffindor, he was pretty sure, so at least they'd never shared a common room — so Noble's memory hadn't gotten too bad, yet.

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set by Bee

He was relieved to hear he had remembered right.  He would have felt terrible if he'd gotten it wrong even though he didn't hold it against the other man for making the same mistake.  It had been many years ago and Jack wasn't exactly anyone of great importance. 

"Something like that." he waved the man off easily.  Apparently what Jack remembered about him began with his name and ended with him being Daffy's friend and potion's tutor.  "I needed potions tutoring too but I ended up with someone in my year."  He shook his head, clearly amused by the memory.  Miss Sandow had done what she could but he'd been all but hopeless at the subject. 

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Noble smiled wryly. "Did the tutoring help?" he asked. The longer he was out here, talking to Constable Dorset, the more likely it was that someone from the Potts family would come out and see him. That would be awkward, if only for Noble. The worst case scenario by far was that Daff would come out. He ought to get away from here as soon as possible. But he'd conjured that excuse for being here, so now he had to — wait until Dorset grew bored, or until they had plausibly been making small talk for long enough that Noble could give up on 'waiting.'

What had he been thinking, coming here, loitering on the street as if that could allow him to have the window into Daff's life he so desperately wanted? The answer was easy: he hadn't been thinking.

And that was the worst thing — after the Sanditon, and after Verity's kidnapping, Noble had secretly vowed to think more.

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set by Bee

"Probably?"  It was a guess as much as a statement.  He probably would have been worse off if he'd tried to go it alone, but the potions professor probably wouldn't have let him carry that on for long.  "I didn't get an O.W.L. for it or anything but that wasn't the tutor's fault."  he finished with an amused shrug.  Clearly it didn’t bother him one bit that he didn’t score well in that class.

Why had he brought this up?  Why was he talking about his mediocre school grades with someone he hardly remembered, 5 years after graduating?  Oh right it was because he'd been standing there looking shady and staring at his watch for longer than was strictly normal.  Maybe it was Jack's Constable Instincts™.  Or maybe it had more to do with the fact that he seemed parked a little too close to a family that had already seen enough trouble, one Jack wanted to see get a little peace.

He struggled to find some bit of small talk to latch on to; Some kind of reason to stay there until the man's excuse arrived.  "And you?"  solid start. Returning a question was polite right?  But no, if he was a tutor grades were probably not an issue.  Try again - "Do you still do potions stuff since leaving school?"

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   Noble Greengrass

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Noble nodded. He was usually good at small talk, but he had nothing to say about not getting an O.W.L. in Potions. Grades had seemed like they were everything, to a middle class second son who wanted to create his own independence early. He hadn't scored below an Acceptable in any of his O.W.L. courses. But things were different for the working classes, he knew — expectations, and circumstances.

He didn't really understand why Dorset was still here talking to him, but Noble knew it was his own fault for behaving so oddly tonight. Maybe he would get lucky and one of his other friends would appear on this street, and Noble could pretend that he'd been waiting for them all along. Or maybe Dorset was just very friendly. (Like Daffy, Noble thought, with another flash of stupid jealousy.)

"I'm a Potioneer now," Noble replied with a broad smile. "So I guess you could say that doing potions stuff is sort of my whole thing."

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The following 2 users Like Noble Greengrass's post:2 users Like Noble Greengrass's post
   Daffodil Grimstone, Jack Dorset

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set by Bee

Well that’s awkward.  It felt worse than possibly getting his name wrong which was silly since there was no reason he should have known the man would go on to do 'potions stuff' professionally.  At least he seemed nice about it - and quite likeable, unfortunately.  It was always worse for Jack when the criminals were likeable.  Not that the man was a criminal yet.

"Well, isn’t that funny."  he said absently, peering up the road looking for any sign of someone making their way to corroborate his story.  At this point his own unease in the conversation was magnifying his suspicion past reason but it was always the crafty criminals that made you second guess yourself. 

Jack realized with a start that maybe the reason he was waiting near the Potts' home was precisely because it was the Potts' home… but like, in a good way. For all he knew about potions there was probably a lot a potioneer and a marine plant-ologist had to discuss. He felt suddenly quite foolish for not thinking of it sooner.  "If its Mr. Potts you're waiting for I can go tell him you're here.  He was elbow deep in his work when I left just now."  He very nearly added 'you know how he gets' but he'd said enough foolish things already. 

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Noble was fairly good at hiding his true feelings — he could be a true middle child in this — but he could not help that his eyebrows shot up at the message of Mr. Potts. The last thing he wanted was to talk with Daff's father — or maybe the second-to-last, after Saff herself — so he conjured an excuse using another Bartonburg friend almost immediately.

"I'm waiting for Billy Darrow," Noble said. He injected confusion into his tone, and hoped that would help make it sound like he didn't know anything at all about the Potts.

And then, to cover his tracks — or maybe because he was just too fucking curious — he added: "Were you at the Potts' home tonight? I always feel lucky when I get to learn from Mr. Potts, he knows so much."

And maybe that was laying it on a little bit too thick, even if it was true that Basil Potts was an expert.

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set by Bee

Jack's brows furrowed just as quickly as the other's shot up. That was exactly the opposite reaction Jack wanted to see - he had been this close to being rid of his suspicion. He would love nothing more than for this to not be a thing. It was a public road, the man had done nothing demonstrably threatening, and by Jack's own understanding he had been a friend of Daffy's… yet he stood here in the looming darkness near the Potts home and the mere mention of the head of house brought out his strongest reaction by far.

The mention of a 'Darrow' hit his ears without much impact. It was a decent recovery and maybe Jack was just reading into the whole thing… but maybe not. He shifted on his feet and adjusted where the sling hung across his chest, resisting the urge to look back over his shoulder at the Potts' front door. "They had me over for dinner." he said simply, his expression shifting to a squint. "Lucky for me Mr. Darrow is late. Gave us a chance to catch up." Because that’s what almost perfect strangers do, 'catch up'.

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Oh, the Potts had Constable Dorset over for dinner. Again, Noble had his good sense fighting his jealousy — Dorset was working class, so he couldn't be a match for Daff, and Noble knew it. Still, he was jealous. Maybe it was just that Dorset got to spend time with Daff, and Noble very distinctly didn't.

There was something about having a Law Enforcement officer mention catching up that had Noble feeling distinctly unsettled. He put his hands in the pocket of his coat.

"Always good to run into someone from school," Noble said mildly.

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The following 1 user Likes Noble Greengrass's post:1 user Likes Noble Greengrass's post
   Daffodil Grimstone

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set by Bee

Jack stuck his good hand in his pocket, subconsciously mirroring the other.  He felt utterly stuck now.  It wasn't like he could just leave, not after that reaction when he'd brought up Mr. Potts, but under any other circumstances he would have carried on his way long ago.  He looked up the road again, still silently optimistic that a Mr. Darrow would come strolling along to save Jack from having to draw this out any further.  And then he couldn't help it - he glanced at the Potts house over his shoulder.  Not that that did anything.  It looked exactly as normal and unassuming as it always did.

Eventually he said, "I ran into your... brother not long ago." His pause gave away that he wasn't totally sure that they were in fact brothers but Jack thought he deserved congratulations for not only coming up with a shred of small talk but also recalling both their surnames and putting it together. 

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And why was Dorset looking back at the Potts house? Noble should have tried harder not to have any familiarity. It was too much to hope he'd get lucky and Billy Darrow would show up. He was just going to have to give it another minute and say that maybe Darrow had forgotten.

"Ford?" Noble said, with a more authentic smile at the mention of his brother. "Something to do with spirits, or just out and about?" Ford always had something going on, even when he didn't tell Noble about it.

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set by Bee

"Mhmm." he hummed with a nod and absolutely no certainty of the man's first name.  Jack was in trouble if Mr. Greengrass had more than one brother.  "Bit of both - I was out and about on patrol, he was doing something with Spirits."  It was vague but he felt weird giving details about an actual incident that ended up with a formal report that got filed somewhere official.

He shifted his weight from one foot to the other as if their conversation was weighing on him like a physical weight.  He'd managed find another temporary small-talk topic which felt like an achievement but he was realizing that it was only a distraction from the real issue.  Which was that something about him and his presence here bugged Jack's instincts enough to make him stick around and invent small talk just to keep an eye on him. 

After a few moments of silence he carefully dropped the small talk pretense.  "Y'know that this is a bit odd right?" he asked, opting for a forthright approach.  He was a sociable guy and must be smart of he did potions for a living... He had to know. 

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