March 18th, 1894 - Hogsmeade Post Office

The weather was finally back to normal after that ridiculous snow storm and Jack thought it warmer out too, which was a bonus. March was so unpredictable (clearly) that he never quite knew what to leave the house in most days. It was rarely too cold for him to make the walk to the hospital, but he hadn't ventured out during the storm at all, obviously and he didn't trust the floo.

Today was pleasantly warm and he'd decided to take a walk on his lunch break to the post office. He had tried to ease up on writing Emerson quite as often, but still aimed for once every other week or so. Jack had thought about just using one of the hospital owls, but ultimately decided against it. He could use a stretch break anyway.

Though, as he stepped into the post office, he might have thought otherwise as they post office was caught in quite the kerfuffle when he arrived. Feathers were everywhere and he head someone shouting. "Everything alright in here?" He managed, closing the door behind him quickly to prevent any creatures from escaping.

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Open for chaos, hurling, or just downright amusement!

  

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Wearing this, but, victorian - hair down

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All she wanted to do was post a package to Inverness, was that so much to ask for? A small package of her mother's favourite treats from Honeydukes sat undelivered on the counter as the staff went into a panic over escaped owls. Daesyn ducked as one flew past her face and she felt a burning sensation as a claw nicked her right cheek on its way past.

She turned to watch the pepper coloured animal and grabbed her wand out of her waistcoat as she flew at high speed towards a gentleman who had just walked in the door. She was sure she recognised him, maybe. His face was one she could have sword she had seen in Merida's department in the hospital when visiting her friend, but she had never spoken to him before.

"Does everything look alright to you?" she answered his query rhetorically with a laugh as blood trickled down a small cut on her cheek. "Arresto Momentum" the cursebreaker said and flicked her wand, slowing the owl in mid flight and giving the newcomer a chance to react to the feathered missile. Behind her all manner of chaos was ensuing and Daesyn wondered what was happening with the owls. And whether her mother would in fact be getting her chocolate frogs.

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Jack Collins

  

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Thank you MJ for this art

The sarcastic quip of a reply to his question, had Jack quirking an eyebrow, but he was more concerned about the owl that had been flying in his direction, as it fell its momentum slowed to the point where it was no longer going forward and instead toward the floor. He dove for it, catching the small screech owl in his cupped hands before it hit the floor. Jack's job now may have been to heal injuries caused by creatures, but he had studied them extensively in his youth and he hated to see them harmed for any reason.

"You should be more careful," he admonished lightly, as he set the small owl to rights gently. "They are easily overcome and freeze." The dazed little creature in his hands was evidence for the fact and he cradled it gently against his chest for a moment as he heard another shout from the back of the shop. Perhaps he ought to step back there and see what was going on. There was a relatively new shop assistant if he remembered correctly and if the owls were all out of sorts, they might be a little overwhelmed back there.

Jack pulled his handkerchief from his pocket and offered it to the young woman, "You should keep a little pressure on that."

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"I'll bear that in mind next time." she replied light heartedly at her mild chastisement. She had seen how owls hunted, if they could stand the odd crash landing they were in the wrong line of work. She took the hankerchief and dabbed it onto her cheek, quickly coating it with bright red blood. She scowled at the recovering owl to indicate to it that it had gotten off lightly. The owl simply ruffled it's feathers against the man's chest, it couldnt possibly understand her.. but it knew.

She smiled at the man as she continued to dab her cheek before applying proper pressure. "Thanks, spose we should go back and see if we can help?" Her eyebrow raised and she looked mischievous, there was a good chance that from her confidence and body language he could guess that she was able to handle herself. An elf came running from the back room and spoke with feigned strength in his voice. "No cause to be alarmed, the masters are just having a little bother with some owls and normal service will be resumed shortly."

The servant's words were punctuated by a loud shout of a word she thought only soldiers knew and she looked at Jack Collins gesturing towards the back room before heading in that direction herself. She wasn't entirely sure what to expect back there, but it sounded like someone could use some help.

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Thank you MJ for this art

Just barely resisting the urge to check his pocket watch, Jack wasn't so sure he had time for this, but he also supposed if people or owls were getting injured back there, he was somewhat qualified to take care of both. His letter wasn't of much import and so he could just go back the hospital to post it, but he would feel guilty leaving here with the place in such shambles.

The appearance of the house elf was a little startling, though Jack wasn't so sure what it was he could do back there, he set the small owl in his hands on a nearby perch to sort itself out. He wasn't so sure what this young woman was going to do back there, but given her rather... unconventional state of hair and attire, he could at least discern she was not some hapless debutante. With a shrug, he gestured for her to lead the way.

This was going to end poorly, he just knew it.

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The scene behind the staff area was one of chaos with a trio of owls flying spooked around the room getting more panicked as the staff tried to grab at them, letters, loose paper and stationary was littered everywhere. The cursebreaker was baffled how they could keep owls for work and not have contingencies for this, she also wondered what had spooked them so much.

"IMMOBULUS" she called out with her wand sending a pulse of dim purple light into the air. Time seemed to freeze and both the birds and one of the unfortunate young staff caught in the spell floated immobile in the air. A globule of red liquid, perhaps wine, perhaps blood from lingered in front of Daesyn's face and she gently blew on it to push it away from her towards the wall. With the birds immobile it was simple a case of moving other floating debris out of the way and placing them back into their cages. She looked around truing to work put what had set off the problem, picking up a large brass bird cage as she did so. Owls were intelligent and usually well trained birds so she suspected that this was the result of either wild incompetence or an act of foul play. It was apparent though that she wasn't the only person injured as she noted a blooded hand print on one of the stacks of papers.

"What's happened in here?" she asked sternly, she had no authority but her tone, encouraged by her facial injury and the fact that a customer was having to resolve their issue, demanded that they tell her.

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Jack Collins

  

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Thank you MJ for this art

Jack had become nothing more than a bystander, watching as the young woman immobilized the flurry if activity in the back of the post office with intrigue. He plucked a large tawny owl from the space near his head and set it gently in the nearest appropriately sized cage for it to reset itself. In all of his own time working with creatures, he wasn't so sure he'd ever seen such a large concentration of owls (aside from the owlry at Hogwarts), as they were typically solitary animals. One would think these were used to having multiple others around at this point however. He was unable to pinpoint the cause of the ruckus and so he let the young woman carry on while he continued to place an owl or two back to safety.

The poor staff seemed to be a little overwhelmed and stuttering, but between the clearly overwhelmed house elf and the other young woman working in the back, something was obviously amiss. "Have you been hurt?" Jack asked instead, taking on his healer's tone; which was far more approachable and inviting than the stern tone of his compatriot.

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The staff seemed much more receptive to Jack Collins than they did to the brash woman that had come stomping in to their calamity waving her wand. Daesyn looked over at him with a thankful smile, sometimes the kinder approach was necessary, and it was a skill that Daesyn sometimes lacked. She couldn't tell from here whether the girl was injured, but she did appear to be crying.

The cursebreaker reached up and pulled the last of the errant owls out of the air, this one had clearly been working as it had the remnants of a torn and slightly singed envelope around its talons. She removed the envelope and placed it into the nearest cage before re-latching the cage. Her immobilising spell was beginning to wear off but thankfully there was no more creatures, owl, human or otherwise still airborne.

"Is she OK?" the witch asked over to the healer.

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Thank you MJ for this art

As Jack assessed the situation, it appeared that the main injury was talon scratches from the errant owls as they panicked about the space. Nobody looked too worse for the wear, just harried and obviously alarmed. "Just a few superficial scratches, easy fix." Jack didn't carry much on his person in the way of supplies, but there were a few spells that would at least close up the cuts.

"Hold still please," he asked of the young woman while he tended to the scratches along both arms. A defense mechanism naturally, but the owls must have also been alarmed by something, to have all acted the way they had. It took a few swipes of his wand along the cuts, but they closed up nicely, no more bleeding. "Do you know what caused the ruckus?" He asked of the staff as he stowed his wand back into his jacket pocket.

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   Daesyn Mackenzie

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That was good then, she thought to herself, no lasting damage it seemed, not to the people way, some of this post would never see the light of day. She read a half burned letter, some poem that tapered off into the blackened edge, clearly a masterpiece lost to the world.

The girl being tended too by Jack Collins looked up at him, she smiled as he wounds healed, he was her hero. "Happens some scally tossed a firework in the window, sir." she said, glancing up at the window. "Went off with such a bang!"

Daesyn looked at the scorched area around the window "Huh, that's what that smell is. Seems like a pretty dumb thing to be doing to be honest." kids were easily bored, she certainly knew the sort that might get up to these kinds of shenanigans. She shook her head, they should probably alert the authorities.

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Thank you MJ for this art

That certainly would do it. Jack sighed heavily. At least the damage wasn't too bad. Everyone was a startled and a little banged up, but it could have been worse. "We should call in the constabulary, so they can keep track." Jack had no idea if this was something that had happened before around town, but he was pretty sure the police would like to know. There had been far too many disasters in Hogsmeade over the years for things like this to slide. If it had started a fire it could have been 1884 all over again.

"You should send them an urgent owl and we can give our statements." Jack eye the young woman who had entered with him with a raised eyebrow. This was far too much for his lunch break today. So much for posting his letter and eating before he had to clock back in.

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   Daesyn Mackenzie

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Daesyn nodded, it was absolutely the right descision to call the police and let them handle this. "Probably kids... or someone who accidently posted a letter to his mistress to his wife." she laughed and grabbed a piece of paper and began making notes, her own post would probably have to wait until after the police were done. "I'm not sure our statements will mean much but better to put it down while fresh." she said aloud to herself before handing the piece of paper with her details on it to slowly recovering staff member. She's be fine, owls we're big scary birds when riled up, but she seemed OK.

Daesyn stood back up and walked over to Jack Collins "Well that was interesting, you handled that girl much better than me. I think I need to eat, how about you?" She raised an eyebrow back at him, hoping her implication was clewr, lunch with a handsome hero would round the morning off quite nicely she thought, even if he was a little older.

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Thank you MJ for this art

Jack really didn't know what to make of this young lady he had encountered today. He thought they ought to give their statements directly to the constables, but writing it down would do too, he supposed. He checked his pocket watch with a grimace, thinking his entire lunch break was over and he needed to get back to the hospital. He would owl the constabulary directly from there and hopefully everything could be settled from there.

"Apologies, Miss," he nearly started when she invited him to lunch. "My lunch break is over now and I need to get back to the hospital." Strange indeed. "Keep those scratches clean to prevent infection," he instructed to nearly everyone in the room as he tucked his watch away. "Here's my card if you or the constables need anything." He gave it to the post office employee with a smile and ducked out of the back room to make the trek back to his office. Using hospital owls didn't sound so bad after this.

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