29 July, 1895 — Daily Prophet Offices
While most of the Prophet offices were filled with reporter's desks and printing presses, their London location also sported a public-accessible front office with a small waiting room, a front desk behind which a secretary sat, and a drop-box for hand delivered mail. Diligent Grimshawe had no notion of why this was necessary — it seemed to him most quality reporting could not be accomplished by waiting around for mail drops to deliver it, but then he wasn't a reporter. In any case it was convenient for his purposes here today. He had walked in and dropped a letter in the box while the secretary was distracted with another visitor, paid for a paper so no one would wonder at his errand on having gone in, and headed straight back towards the door. He would have very soon been on his way, except that right before his hand gripped the handle Diligent Grimshawe, along with every other man in a thirty foot radius of the secretary's desk, was stricken blind.
It wouldn't have been obvious to everyone that this had been the effect, but given that Diligent had made the curse that had just been sprung he was quite well aware of its impacts. It wasn't supposed to have been sprung while he was still inside the building! The envelope was addressed to the chief editor, though evidently that hadn't stopped the welcome witch from opening it. And had she really had nothing at all to do after finishing with that one guest than to immediately open the mail that had arrived not three minutes before? The timing was wrong, but now the location was, too — it was supposed to have been opened further back and encompassed the entire Prophet building; now it was probably spilling out into the street ahead of them while missing the back offices entirely. It was a good thing he took payment upfront, and didn't have to report back to the angry feminist on how well her act of protest against discretionary ink had been acquitted.
"Fucking hell," he mumbled, trying to think how he would get himself out of this one. He didn't relish the idea of pawing his way down the street blind, but if he stayed and waited for intervention someone might ask what his business had been at the Prophet, and they were unlikely to accept whatever excuse he came up with.
At least he wasn't the only one in unfortunate circumstances; he heard someone else fall over a bit of furniture quite dramatically. For his part he had frozen where he was, determined to keep what he could of his dignity while he planned his escape.
Tamsin Skeeter Gregory Dhan
It wouldn't have been obvious to everyone that this had been the effect, but given that Diligent had made the curse that had just been sprung he was quite well aware of its impacts. It wasn't supposed to have been sprung while he was still inside the building! The envelope was addressed to the chief editor, though evidently that hadn't stopped the welcome witch from opening it. And had she really had nothing at all to do after finishing with that one guest than to immediately open the mail that had arrived not three minutes before? The timing was wrong, but now the location was, too — it was supposed to have been opened further back and encompassed the entire Prophet building; now it was probably spilling out into the street ahead of them while missing the back offices entirely. It was a good thing he took payment upfront, and didn't have to report back to the angry feminist on how well her act of protest against discretionary ink had been acquitted.
"Fucking hell," he mumbled, trying to think how he would get himself out of this one. He didn't relish the idea of pawing his way down the street blind, but if he stayed and waited for intervention someone might ask what his business had been at the Prophet, and they were unlikely to accept whatever excuse he came up with.
At least he wasn't the only one in unfortunate circumstances; he heard someone else fall over a bit of furniture quite dramatically. For his part he had frozen where he was, determined to keep what he could of his dignity while he planned his escape.
