16th August, 1889 — Post Office

Hundreds of owls lined the Post Office walls, most of them asleep; or feigning it, Elias presumed, so as not to be the unlucky winged messengers selected for a few packaged brooms he was sending out today to someone on the continent. Not that he and owls had ever been much on the same page. He suspected they didn’t quite trust anything that deigned to try to fly without wings.

Transactions at the post office were usually swift enough and uneventful, of course, and Elias was quite ignoring the owls as he waited his turn with the clerk. He had already visited Quality Quidditch Supplies, so his arms were laden with both the brooms and a few parcels from there...

But apparently something else had followed him from the quidditch shop. Unfortunately, Elias had not noticed the lone bludger loosed from its casing as he had opened the quidditch shop door. He had not noticed it follow him determinedly from one end of the High Street to the other. He definitely had not noticed that bludger dart into the post office after him: indeed, Elias only caught sight of it when the bludger whizzed close past his ear.

He saw it happen sidelong, the black ball heading for the wall and all the owls on their shelves. It smashed into the wood, and then - utter chaos. A flurry of owls took off, filling the post office like a wild, feathery snowstorm. Elias yelped.

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Melody, generally speaking, often did her best to avoid needing the use of the post office. Those of her classmates that had sought life abroad were given notes to mail through a servant and those local to Britain were sent letters either through her own owl or her family's. Besides, it wasn't as though her stop in the local office would go unnoticed by her still distrusting parents. Having been caught once attempting to sneak off a letter to Ben by the ever vigilant Mrs. Bradley, she knew better than to think she could correspond with anyone privately. It had taken months to earn the privilege of a quiet afternoon at the library back. She wasn't about to risk it.

Mrs. Bradley, however, had no qualms about requesting they make a stop at the local office on their way back home. The request had come wrapped in some story about her eldest daughter living in Germany and wanting to check in on her. Truthfully, Melody didn't pay much attention. The elder woman was a bore on the best of days and an absolute drag on others. The young debutante had far better things to focus upon.

She waited impatiently off to the side for Mrs. Bradley to finish her business at the counter. Distantly, she wondered if it was worth a stop at the tailor to check on the status of her new dress before returning to Wellingtonshire. When suddenly a bludger came flying through the building. Melody screamed at the chaos and ducked low to the ground. Quidditch had never been her favorite thing, and the violence perpetuated by the bludgers even less so. Merlin, why in the world was there a bloody bludger flying loose!

She curled further into herself as she spotted it returning, clearly having not reached its target. "Watch out!" She yelled, pointing towards it. Frantically, she searched for her wand only to find that the insanity had caused it to fall from her pocket.

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He might’ve been embarrassed to have yelped aloud, if the post office was not taken up by more shouts, shrieks and screams than his. (And that was before one added the cacophony of distressed owls.) He had found himself almost frozen in his tracks, too busy watching the shelves splinter where the bludger had smashed into them and bounced away to think about where it was headed next - it was only when a female voice from near the floor shouted through the chaos that Elias regained his sense, whirled around to locate the ferocious black ball, and dropped to the floor on all fours, not far from the young lady who had had the presence of mind to warn him.

He let out a breath of tentative relief and leant back a little on his knees, ready to duck his head again if it whizzed this way again. “Thanks,” Elias began, offering her a grateful smile in between squinting up warily into the feathery mass. “I -” He didn’t get any further than that, because at that moment precisely, the bludger collided with a barn owl above their heads, and the poor bird flopped right out of the air onto the wooden floor between them with a sad little thump. Elias blinked, having completely forgotten what he had been going to say. “Er.”

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"You're welcome." She returned quickly. Melody was still not confident that the bludger wouldn't come hurling at them once more, and as such was rightfully on edge. Mrs. Bradley was never going to convince her to stop ar the post office again after this diaster. After all, it was quite lucky the bludger hadn't maimed anyone yet.

Before she could ask if the man was alright an owl - a dead owl! - fell unceremoniously to the ground between them. Too horrified to properly function, Melody inched away from it as carefully as possible. A dead owl. Was sort of oemn was that?! "Is the bludger done at least?" She asked. Merlin, she only wanted to go home.

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Elias was also concerned about what sort of omen that was, but if it were a bad one, it had come a little late, because, well, no shit.

“I wish bludgers were so easily bored,” Elias murmured to her a little grimly, supposing he could not just shelter low on the ground with her, lest the little bugger take down half the post office. Somehow, worryingly, he felt as though this bludger’s presence might be his fault. But perhaps that was only because he was too used to being to blame for incidents. Perhaps today he could be the hero of the situation.

The bludger would not be stopped unless someone stopped it, so Elias turned his eyes upwards from the poor dead pile of feathers and scouted out the ball, trying to aim at it with his wand for a few moments but too afraid to shoot a hex, in case it hit another owl in the crossfire. That would not be helpful.

So he let his wand clatter to the floor instead and leapt up to his feet again, making a lunge for the bludger when it next whizzed past like it was a circling fly or a something like a more-dangerous-moth, and after a miss Elias’ reflexes were fast enough to catch it, with a thud, as it hit him in the chest. It might’ve knocked him off his broom if he were on it, but he was safer on his feet, and he had his hands on it now, though it was still struggling -

“I need - something to put it in!” Elias said with some urgency, turning to the young woman for help, because, now that he was principally concerned with grappling with the restless ball, he had no hands free.

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   Melody Crouch

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His response did little to calm her nerves. Bludgers - quidditch in general, really - had never piqued her interest, and as such she had little knowledge about the vicious ball's determination. It had been her hope that after its first run through the post office that it'd simply would've returned to wherever it came from. Clearly, she should've paid more attention to the sport.

Before she could address what he meant by his response, the had leapt to his feet snd was tackling the bludger. He needed something to put it in...? Quickly, Melody scanned the room and summoned the small chest from behind the counter. Whatever the chest contained couldn't possibly be worse than the ball of murder and destruction flying about. "Here!" She exclaimed as she opened the chest and shoved it towards him.

Hopefully it worked.

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Elias was slightly too distracted to see out of the corner of his eye what she had spotted until it was floating towards her. “That’ll - do - nicely!” Elias said, struggling against the ball as it writhed in his hands - like a panicked animal, or a particularly violent young child having a tantrum. If a bludger could kick and scream - well.

Fortunately, it could not, so when Elias had stuffed it into the chest and flung the lid of the chest down upon it, all it could do was rattle about inside, thudding dully against the sides. Elias clicked the locks in place (...too late to check if there was anything valuable already inside, at this point) and took advantage of the young lady still holding it to swipe his wand off the floor and point it at the chest, directing his spell at the bludger inside, muttering an incantation that would put it to sleep. For lack of a better word.

That accomplished, Elias could let out the breath he’d been holding, and he looked at the woman, full of relief. “Thank you,” he said again, “Miss...?”

He would rather, he decided, think about introductions before he thought about the flock of owls still soaring above their heads in unified disgruntlement. (Or the dead one at their feet.)

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Finally, the blasted bludger was contained and they could breathe a sigh of relief. The owls could be dealt with easily enough now that the ball of destruction had been stoppped. Melody hastily dropped the chest to the ground and stepped further away from it. With their luck, it would burst from the chest and slam into them all once more.

"Finch." She offered. "Miss Finch. And thank you, Mister..." It was quite a way to meet someone - sharing a near death experience. She truly wasn't a fan. None of this would've happened had Mrs. Bradley not forced her from the library.

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With their luck, indeed. Elias couldn’t pretend he wasn’t keeping the corner of an eye trained on the chest in case the bludger suddenly burst back into vexed life - but all seemed well.

Miss Finch, she said. With any luck, she was well enough too, and not too traumatised to ever set foot in the post office again. “Grimstone, Elias Grimstone,” he said kindly. He suspected - mostly based on her reaction to the bludger, but also because of well, all of her - that she did not have a great deal to do with quidditch. “You’re not too shaken by our brush with - total destruction, I hope?” Elias said, which was half a joke and half an honest question; though if he were intending to make her feel better he probably shouldn't have mentioned destruction, should he?

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The name Grimstone was annoyingly familiar, and yet Melody was unable to place where she knew it from. Something with Archie, but her brother had so many hobbies she wouldn't know where to start. Not that it really mattered, as the likelihood of her encountering him again was minuscule. Melody certainly wasn't going to return to the post office anytime soon.

She looked around him to the panicked people and the disturbed owls. "Not as unnerved as some I'd say." One woman ran out of the building the instant Mr. Grimstone had the bludger contained. "Is this a frequent occurrence? Rogue bludgers?"

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Elias fought a chuckle at the belated reaction of one of the bystanders, a little more preoccupied himself by the owls that kept brushing past his head as they all rearranged themselves onto their roosts in one giant flurry. It was rather tempting to swat at them, really.

“Er,” he said, taken aback by the question and attempting to think of a satisfactory answer to that. “Perhaps on the quidditch pitch... but no, not even then.” Elias smiled ruefully at her. Not that he’d had experience of bludgers on the pitch in years - since Hogwarts, for that matter - and even the tamest ones had been threat enough to him, because he had always had a tendency of drifting off in the middle of something. “Just my luck, probably,” he assured her; he doubted Miss Finch would have cause to come across too many more in her day-to-day life. “Best head out while the coast’s clear.”

He suspected she might not be keen to come back to the post office after this, though.

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One had to possess terrible luck indeed to believe it normal for rogue bludgers to single them out. Was this man often accosted by dangerous enchanted items? Melody took a tiny step away from him as she contemplated, one she hoped was hardly noticeable. If Mr. Grimstone was truly a target Melody no longer wished to remain near him. The dead owls were enough proof for her, thank you very much.

"Yes, I believe my chaperone will likely feel the same." She said politely. Even if Mrs. Bradley decided to linger in the post office Melody would not. And she most certainly wouldn't be persuaded into returning. Once was enough. "I hope your luck turns for you, Mr. Grimstone." She said before excusing herself into the fresh summer air.

  

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Not as unnerved as some, she’d said, but at that tiny step she took, Elias couldn’t miss that she was unnerved. It wasn’t funny, really - except that, in just the smallest way, it was.

“Thank you,” Elias said, doubting such a reversal of fortune would come his way, but offering Miss Finch a hand half-raised in farewell as she took her leave.

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