March 21st, 1891

A little over a decade ago, five galleons wouldn't have meant anything to him - five galleons was chump change. Now, Art didn't have give galleons floating around, especially without Desdemona working - he needed to pay back the debt as soon as possible (Art did not exactly have credit anymore, and the boxing venue was likely to figure this out sooner rather than later) and there were only a few ways he could do this.

1. Liquidate existing possessions to pay off the debt without risk.
2. Gamble more in order to make up the gap.

The trouble with liquidating possessions, which was certainly the better option on paper, was that he didn't have that many, and those he could sell would certainly be noticed - by his wife or by his friends, it didn't matter. He needed all his Quidditch gear. The flying carpet was sort of a staple - and Ben might notice eventually. Glasses and liquor and furniture would all be noted by Desdemona. He couldn't bloody well sell his wedding ring.

So - he could gamble more. He'd go to the casino until he made up the five galleons, and then he'd stop, surely this was enough of a lesson. But Art found himself sitting in his parlor looking at his father's pocketwatch, one of the few vestiges of his old life that he still had, one of the few things he could have liquidated if he wanted to, for all that it had sentimental meaning.

He did not trust himself.

It was less that he trusted her, and more that she was the best bad option - the only person who owed him something, but hopefully did not know him well enough to ask too many questions about it.

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March 21st, 1891

Irish,

Hang onto this for me, will you? Someone else will tell you when I need it back.

Cheers,
Art Pettigrew

attached is Art's father's pocketwatch
Bella Scrimgeour

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   Bella Scrimgeour, Reuben Crouch, Roberto Devine

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set by MJ <3

The parcel was one of the mysterious ones Bella had received—ever.

It was not that pocket watches were inherently mysterious, but rather that it had come out of the blue, from Arthur Pettigrew, with a note that was mysterious. She would have been more than pleased to hold onto it for him—she owed him a favor, and this was much less worse than a favor she might have conjured up if he had owed her one—but there was something so ordinary about it that seemed... off.

She held it in her hand. It was old, it was heavy, and more than anything it was expensive—it was exactly the sort of thing someone should not trust her, a girl in poverty after years in the comfort of high society, with, and yet he had sent her without so much as instructions for its care.

But that was not the most mysterious part about it. It was the last sentence, the second sentence, which was the strangest: Someone else will tell you when I need it back. What did that even mean? Somehow Bella felt as though she was forbidden from asking, as though he would have told her in the initial letter if he intended to tell her at all.

She put aside he questions long enough to pull out the shoebox of her personal belongings from under her bed. She still had a few things from her past: her old healer's intern badge, a miniature of her and her twin sister that had been painted the summer after her first year, the small journal she'd used to take notes for Malcolm MacFusty during her time as his research assistant, and now Arthur Pettigrew's pocketwatch. Her gaze lingered on it for a moment, but then she closed the box and shoved it back under her bed, where she hoped it would stay out of sight and out of mind.

And then, she sat down to write.

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21 March, 1891

Mr. Pettigrew,

It's safe with me. Please assure me that in keeping it I will not be putting my housemates at risk of being arrested or killed.

Thank you.

Bella Scrimgeour

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The following 1 user Likes Bella Scrimgeour's post:1 user Likes Bella Scrimgeour's post
   Arthur Pettigrew

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— MJ is MAGICAL —

March 22nd, 1891

Irish,

I promise it's not cursed, or stolen. It used to be my father's.

Art Pettigrew

  

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set by MJ <3

22 March, 1891

Mr. Pettigrew,

That's reassuring, yet somehow more curious than if it was stolen or cursed. In any case, it will be hidden away until you need it again.

Bella Scrimgeour

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— MJ is MAGICAL —