November 13 1892 - Virani Watches & Clocks
Caspian Virani

“Phil, what are you holding?” Gus sighed at the niffler who stared at him with innocent, brown eyes, clutching something silver and round in his paws. A pocket watch, he realized, as he moved to tug it free from his paws; he had an affinity with showing up with them more than anything else, although he collected anything shiny when Gus wasn’t watching him. Maybe it was the ticking sound he liked, or the fact that it was easy to hold, but lately Gus had been returning the same pocket watch to Basil, while breathlessly apologizing that he’d teach his niffler some manners.

So far he’d been able to return all the returned goods to people, but this one… “Really? Where did you even get this?” He asked, although he couldn’t help but bring Phil up to his face and nuzzle their faces together. (He was so damn cute and already had Gus wrapped around his paws.) “Alright, alright. We have to return it to its owner. You have to stop taking things that aren’t yours, okay?” Phil just blinked at him like he had two heads. It was much easier to take care of a niffler whose job it was to seek out treasures with him – Eugene hadn’t been kidding when he’d said they were exhausting. Gus should owl him to make sure he wasn't dead from having a few more baby ones he was still dealing with.

Hogsmeade was congested, and finding the owner of the pocket watch was going to prove an impossible feat on its own, so instead Gus pocketed the watch as he scooped up Phil  before he turned on his heels to make his way toward Virani Watches & Clocks. Surely he’d be able to help him figure out the owner, so Gus could grovel and apologize for having a thieving niffler.

The bell above the door sounded his arrival, and he stepped up toward the counter. Gus tucked Phil into his pocket, thankful he was still small enough to do so, although he instantly poked his head back out to stare at all the shiny objects around.

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Business was good these days, steady but quiet. Caspian couldn't complain about the volume of work. He wasn't overwhelmed, but he wasn't bored either. It was just right, honestly. He liked to be able to take time with what he was working on so he could ensure quality. To say he was a perfectionist was a bit of a stretch, but he valued the details he was able to craft and for them to be accurate, well that required time. Of course Caspian tried to make each of his pieces unique in some way, which also took time.

He was working on a repair  when he heard the bell tinkle announcing someone's arrival. Ian took a moment to reach a point where he wouldn't lose what he'd been doing and set the pocket watch back into the box it came in. He made a quick note before making his way to the front of the shop. "That's trouble," Ian warned Gus with a wary smile as he noted the niffler in the other man's pocket.

"Something I can do for you?" His inquiry was with raised, amused eyebrows as he looked the professor up and down.

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Laughing quietly, Gus nodded his head. “He has a pension for pocket watches, so I’m sure you’ll be seeing me a lot. Although, I might buy him his own while I’m here and keep on me to serve as a distraction.” It was a thought, and Phil would probably love to have his own that wasn’t constantly taken away from him. After they figured out who it belonged to he’d have a look around and see which one the niffler was most attracted to – it would be money well spent.

His gaze flitted around before it landed in Ian, and he couldn’t help but shrug at him. “Phil’s only been taking Professor Foxwood’s pocket watch until now. And I’m not sure who this one belongs to.” He pulled the watch out from his pocket while simultaneously pushing the niffler back into inside, so he couldn't get any bright ideas of trying to touch everything and anything. (How he was going to manage this when he was too big to fit was beyond Gus, but that was a problem for later.) “I was hoping you’d be able to help me? I don’t see any marking, but I’m not an expert, obviously.” Then he held it out to Ian and offered him a sheepish grin.

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"Keep ahold of that thing." He warned. Nearly everything in his shop was some kind of shiny, the creature would have a field day pocketing all of the trinkets Caspian worked on. "Phil, fitting." Ian snorted. That was a very Gus name to give a niffler.

"Sounds like a little philandering thief," Ian teased lightly, knowing Gus didn't exactly mean for it to be thieving everything in sight, it was simply how the little rodents were wired. "I'm sure Foxwood loves that." Though Ian did not know the other professor well, he did know that he probably did not appreciate having his pocket watch stolen with any frequency. "Ah, at least you have taste, Phil." Ian chuckled as Gus provided him with another timepiece to take a look at.

Ian didn't need to even open the watch to know who it belonged to. "You two are in deep shit." He sighed. Bringing the pocket watch in close just to be sure. The signature B was at the back, but very expertly tied into the design so only someone who knew to look for it would find it. "It's not one of mine, but I have fixed it in the past." No, this was an heirloom that was probably older than he was, but he had been previously entrusted to its care. "You may wish to get this back to the Headmaster, as soon as possible." Ian pulled a satin pouch from below his counter to tie the watch up in so that it was safe from nicks and scratches.

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Well, Gus had done a very good job at keeping a hold of something before for Ian and he knew that he’d be able to do it again; keeping his loveable but accident prone creature in his pocket would prove to (hopefully) be an easy feat. An easy grin slid across his face as he nodded.. “Phil won’t touch anything, promise.” He held his hands up in surrender. Or at least, he hoped he wouldn’t. Sometimes the niffler was small and slipped out without him noticing until things were… chaotic. Gus definitely didn’t have enough to buy everything in here if he broke it.

An easy grin slipped across his face; Basil didn’t seem to mind. It gave them a constant excuse to see each other, not that Gus ever needed an excuse to seek the man out. His face fell then at his next words, and he choked on absolutely nothing, his hand slapping against his chest until he choked out words. “No.” He shook his head as he felt his face pale. “No, no. Let’s try this again. You can tell me it belongs to the bloody Minister before Headmaster Black, because he will have my head if he learns that Phil took this off him.” Gus sighed. “Or he’d lock Phil in a cage and I’m not sure he’d survive in such a small space.”

It wasn’t like Black even knew he had a niffler and he wasn’t about to offer that information up on a silver platter. Gus was good at being in places he shouldn’t be, but he wasn’t about to put his job on the line by being in his office uninvited of all places. (It didn’t matter if half the time Gus moaned and groaned about hating being a professor — he didn’t want to be fired, especially for something so dumb.)

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Gus' panic was understandable. Of all the pocket watches to purloin, that of the headmaster would certainly bring down the worst consequences. Gus wasn't wrong either, even the minister would likely be more understanding. Not that Ian knew the man personally, but he had gone through Hogwarts and Black had terrified him then, and he wasn't even the Headmaster yet.

"It's not ideal, but I may have a way to get it back and leave Phil out of it." The problem was, would he just take it again? "You're going to have to work on keeping Phil out of Black's quarters." Frankly, Ian wasn't even sure how Phil had nicked it. There had to be very few precious opportunities where the it wasn't on the headmaster and Ian was almost impressed the niffler hadn't gotten caught.

Caspian took the watch in the satchel and figured if he gave it a good polish and wrote a note about it being turned into him, hopefully Black would be appreciative of getting it back in working order.

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Gus couldn’t help but laugh nervously as he rubbed the back of his head. Yup. Black was absolutely going to murder him, and if there was one person who would get away with it, it was going to be him. It would be awful for Fig to lose their dad and then him within the span of a couple weeks, but she had the Foxwoods now. She was in good hands. She didn’t need Gus, not in the way he needed her.

“He’s going to get me fired, and then I’ll be owling you to let you know my new place of employment.” The redhead shot the niffler with a pointed look as his head popped out of his pocket, but Phil didn’t care. Ugh. He was just so cute. Training him was going to be hard. “Unless you need an assistant. I know absolutely nothing about clocks, outside of knowing how to tell time on them.” Gus cocked his head and grinned at him.

Then he sighed with relief as Ian began to fiddle with the pocket watch. “Ian, I owe you.” A lot. If it wasn’t bloody November and kind of cold out, he may have offered to buy him ice cream. “I know. My goal over the Christmas holiday is to train some manners into him. He’s just so young and still exploring. I don’t want to destroy his nature of exploring, but we’ll at least work on not going into Black’s office.” He hadn’t trained his niffler before, Gringotts took care of that, but how hard could it be? Maybe he could rope Ian into helping him. He has plenty of shiny things.

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Ian wasn't so sure one could confidently train a niffler for much. They had one goal and didn't tend to care just what kind of chaos they caused in their wake. But hopefully Gus could at least keep the critter from wandering too much. Realistically out of Black's quarters wasn't too much.

"Ah well, hopefully that won't be too tricky. There's another bloke in town with an orangey one, seems to be pretty well-behaved." Gus could probably figure it out, but maybe some professional help wouldn't go amiss. "So you want me to try and return the watch to Black? I figure I can just play it off as it was turned into me, or pawned or something so I sent it back." It wouldn't be too bad, he hoped.

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An easy laugh slipped past Gus’ lips. Eugene, he definitely meant Eugene, but he wasn’t ready to admit defeat just yet, but after all, he’d only had Phil for a couple more. He was still a baby and needed to mature, but he also understood the need to teach them not to be complete hellions at a young age. Realistically, if he could keep him out of Black’s office, that would be a win for Gus. It meant he probably wouldn’t be fired. (Or disappear, as Black would probably make his death look like an accident, especially because he was prone to fleeing without saying goodbye to people.)

Yeah, that would be great.” Smiled brightly at him as he laughed again. “I really owe you, Ian. Let me know how I can make it up to you, and I will. Promise.” He was good at keeping promises, or he thought, at least.

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