romantic heart

“Oh! I saw you last night! When I was water scrying!!” Sofiya squealed, instead of greeting the other person. She rarely saw something so specific , and when she did, the action happened a long time after the vision, so this was quite a surprise. Divination rarely worked for her the way she expected it to. Then again, she hadn’t really put an effort on water scrying before. “Same clothes and everything.  But how are you? Have you tripped down the stairs yet?”

          “I’m... what?” she asked, turning her attention to the other girl. Felicity liked to think she was at least a little bit poised. She didn’t trip that often. “Wait a second? You can scry on people?” Felicity was in awe with anyone who had the ability to see things. “I haven’t tripped on any stairs yet. Are you sure it was me? Not to, um, say you don’t know what you saw. But I don’t typically trip on stairs. Unless I’m just in the middle of a really good book. Or frustrated at my boyfriend.” 

It was no surprise to hear that the young woman was drawn to this particular shop. Divination often had that affect on people. even for those who never understood how to properly practice it. Many wanted to believe in its wonders, but not everyone had the true ability to accurately utilize it. “Well that’s to be expected,” Juliette chuckled, straightening up and pushing herself up to sit on the counter. “Tell me… have you ever considered getting a reading session done?”

Juliette gestured to the woman’s palms, giving her a mischievous grin whilst raising her eyebrows. “Or maybe that isn’t your cup of tea, as they say… There’s a lot of other things here that might interest you.” Swinging her legs over the counter, the blonde slid down and motioned for the woman to follow, weaving through the aisles. “I sense a lot of tension built up around you… what’s been going through your mind?”

          Felicity wished she had given divination a chance in school. A part of her just didn’t want to take a subject that she’d fail. And she knew that she had no gift for sight. It wasn’t in her nature to think about the future or the meanings behind tea leafs. It was a mystery to her why some people did and others didn’t. Felicity almost wondered if it was a belief or something. But no, lots of people wanted sight and didn’t have it. “I did back in school, for my friends who took divination.” But that had been a long time ago. “But not by someone who knows the art more.” 

          She smiled slightly at the pun and looked around. “I do like tea though.” Maybe a tea reading would do her good. Get her to relax a little and think about how she actually felt. Everything seemed too muddled. “Oh, well...” What was going through her mind? A lot. “I guess I’ve just lost my way... so it just... feels like a lot’s going on in my mind.” 

Alex’s breath was coming in short bursts, even as he apologized and tried to collect himself. Something about the crowds wouldn’t let the vice grip around his lungs ease. Everything too much all at once, and he wanted so badly to focus on the young woman in front of him who was scrutinizing him with concern, but he just couldn’t. Her words were muffled in his ears, and he started to sign something abortively but his hands were shaking. 

“I’ll be- fine,” he gasped, not quite hearing himself even as he spoke. But he wasn’t fine. Not even close. He couldn’t breathe. One hand tightened on the head of his cane and the other came up to fist in the front of his robes over his chest, where his lungs constricted. “Just- need- need to- breathe”

He wasn’t there. He wasn’t there. No cell, no masked figure, no dementors. He was one concentrated apparition away from just being able to appear at home, or in Alastor’s office. He had freedom. There was no need for his mind to panic. But he was. And he couldn’t stop it.

Originally posted by xbellarketrashx

          She had never had a panic attack before, though she knew what they looked like. In school the closest she’d ever come to having one was when she forgot about an essay that was due. Felicity usually felt like she wasn’t that panicky, even in stressful situations. That didn’t mean she’d never helped someone with one before. Many times at school, she’d been around people who had them. The girl frowned. Unsure of what exactly she wanted to do with the streets being so crowded. 

          “Hey, it’s...” but it wasn’t okay. Clearly she could do something to help, but she didn’t know what exactly would make him feel better. “Do you... would it help if you moved out of the street? I’m not... technically... allowed to bring non-employees to the back of the shop, but...” It was clearly an emergency and if someone complained, then she’d tell them to leave. She spoke calmly and slowly. 

          Felicity didn’t know if that would help, it was just the only thing she could think to offer. “Just... tell me what you need?” It hurt to see people in this kind of state. 

Hilda laughed. Even when she was with Patrick, she refused to buy any muggle parenting books. Maybe she was overconfident, but she didn’t believe they were going to tell her anything useful. So many problems that muggles struggled with just weren’t issues when you had magic. She wasn’t going to read a book that described problems that probably wouldn’t even register with her. Besides, if she needed any help, she had his mother there to help her.

“Uh, no. I will never shop at one of those. Besides, I highly doubt they’d offer any solutions in which magic couldn’t just be used instead.”

If she wasn’t going to buy a parenting book, she was going to need to find something else. Since moving into Malfoy Manor, Hilda had gained a lot of free time, and she needed to find some way to fill it. “Are there any non-parenting books you recommend?”

          Honestly, Felicity loved muggle bookstores. While they didn’t have the most useful books that helped to give wizards advice, they were entertaining usually. She’d never been one of the blood purists. Her parents had always encouraged exploration, even muggle books. It was the least she could do to recommend them because sometimes there were some good ones. 

          “Oh, well... sometimes they have good books.” She shrugged, knowing she couldn’t force someone to go where they didn’t want to. She wondered why there weren’t more books with wizarding parental advice. Probably because most advice was passed on from generation to generation. “I suppose you’re right though.” 

          For a second she thought, trying to find books. “Depends on what you want; I have lots of recommendations.” Felicity paused for a moment, thinking about this current section. “There’s a good book on relationship advice over here.” 

So Edith was only half correct in this instance. She could live with that, she thought in her head as Felicity continued. Regardless of what was said betewen her and Griffin, it was clear as day that she was unhappy with it. While it wasn’t exactly Edith’s place to say much more, she would gladly offer advice if the girl was willing to take it. “Well… what do you want to do? That’s usually a good place to start,” Edith offered. 

The topic of conversation shifted to talking about herself, to which Edith merely gave a content shrug. “I’m alright, I suppose. Certainly been better.” Life became much more complicated after graduating Hogwarts, she’d noticed. It was like they had been blinded the entire time they were at school and thrust into the middle of a warzone specifically to get slaughtered. But, rather than say all of this and turn the conversation depressing, Edith took a sip of her drink and sighed. “Things with my sister are getting better, which is nice. Oh, and my girlfriend and I are redecorating our flat! That’s going quite swimmingly.”

          What do you want to do about it? That was the question. She used to be so self confident and sure of the right answer. Now, she felt conflicted about everything. It wasn’t fair. Maybe barreling through decisions wasn’t right, but then neither was second guessing everything. Felicity didn’t know what to do anymore and every time she thought about it, she wondered if she was ever going to get out of this stalemate. “Um... I don’t know.” Because that was the best if not only answer she could give. She didn’t want to make a mistake and break things off with Griffin, but she also wasn’t happy. 

          “That’s good.” Of course that was the answer. Everyone who was anyone knew what was going on in the Wizarding World. Felicity just read the papers and looked at everything wishing she knew what to do about everything. Right now, she was doing everything in her power not to think about what was going on. It was another thing she added to the overthinking pile in her brain. “That’s great that things are getting better between you two.” Felicity didn’t have any siblings. “Oh! When that’s done I’d love to come over to visit and see it. I keep buying more books, so soon I’m just going to end up making a whole house made entirely out of books instead of bricks.” 

Juliette tended to think that there were not many boring things in life, but a plethora of boring people. She had been working at the Divination shop that day for a few hours now, and would get the usual crowd of people flowing in. Not many stayed longer than a few minutes, but the ones who did were her favorite.

She stood by the counter, fiddling with her necklace as she stared absentmindedly out the window of the shop. Witches and Wizards used to be hustling by outside their building, but in the middle of war, there were scarcely any bodies wandering the streets. It didn’t help that they were located in Knockturn Alley. Juliette sighed and leaned over the counter, rolling onto her side. Just as she had thought her day was destined to be nothing more than her staring at her own reflection, someone had triggered the bell at the top of the door. “About time…” she smiled to herself. “What can I do for you?”

@felicitygrant

          For as long as Felicity had worked in Diagon Alley, she had never ventured into Knockturn Alley. Once, when she was younger, she’d been drawn there, but her parents had quickly ushered her away. They had said it wasn’t for people her age. Felicity had left it at that. For the most part, she tended to have too much to do after work to actually go and see what was there. But today was different. She was avoiding home as much as possible these days, so she figured lingering longer wasn’t a bad idea. 

          The Divination shop stood out to her as one of the few places that she felt comfortable going. At school, she never took Divination. It wasn’t her thing. She didn’t feel a connection to being able to tell the future, though she was in awe of people who could. When she walked in, she immediately noted the smell. “Oh, well...” Felicity looked around before turning to the shop keeper. “I’ve never been in Knockturn Alley before and this shop looked curious to me.” She didn’t entirely know what she wanted or what she was doing here. “

Hilda turned the covers back to her and scanned them again before looking inside for the publication dates. It made sense that the two paperbacks weren’t popular. To say their cover art was appealing would be too generous.

“This one is,” Hilda said, holding up the more exciting of the two covers. “But if neither are popular, better you let me know than for me to blindly buy one.” Hilda held her tongue after she spoke. It was fiscally responsible statements like that which she had to be careful about. With where she was living now, Hilda had to once again regard money as no object. She picked up the habit living with Patrick, but if she was going to seamlessly blend in with her current peers, she couldn’t afford any slip ups.

          Usually, this section had to be dusted because it wasn’t that popular. She didn’t really want to say that the section wasn’t popular. A sale was a sale after all and that’s technically what she was here for. Though she also felt like giving people advice not to buy specific books was something she was supposed to be doing. And she wasn’t going to judge either book, but they both did look kind of outdated.

          “Huh, well if you would go with one, I’d go with that one. But neither of them are very popular. Actually really everything in this section isn’t popular.” Felicity bit the bottom of her lip. “Yeah, I suppose you really wouldn’t want to buy one if it isn’t going to give you good advice.” The young wizard nodded. “I honestly would try to find a muggle store. They probably have a better selection. They’ve usually got a wider variety of books on these sorts of subjects.” The statement maybe seemed a little more matter of factly than she meant for it to sound. As if she’d been browsing those sections lately.

Edith held her cup of tea in both hands, sipping at it intently as the other girl across from her rambled on. It was no secret that Edith wasn’t all that impressed with the likes of Griffin Reed, but for Felicity’s sake she had always at least tried to tolerate their relationship. Quite frankly, she would have no qualms about celebrating should they ever break up, though of course she would never tell anyone else that. At least, not either of them. “It sounds like you two had another one of your… discussions.”

Arguement wasn’t exactly the right word to describe it. It was more of… Edith envisioned that Felicity probably attempted at voicing her concerns abd Griffin likely didn’t listen to half of them. Usually ending with sighs and resignation. “Am I wrong?”

@felicitygrant​

          Felicity didn’t make a habit of talking bad about her relationship. Really, as unhappy as she was with the relationship, it wasn’t really her feelings she was questioning. It was herself and the decisions she made because of her relationship. She didn’t know what she was going to do about it either because it felt like there was nothing that could be done. Other people were people she could bounce ideas off of instead of just talking to Griffin because that obviously wasn’t working. 

          “I don’t know if it was really a discussion.” Because honestly all Felicity has said was that she wanted to find a way to finish her education. Then at least her parents would get off her back. “I don’t know what to do.” She wondered if the unhappiness could so clearly be seen on her face or if her fake happiness fooled everyone. “Anyway, how are you?” 

Alex had walked with a slight limp ever since he was first kidnapped and tortured by the Death Eaters. The walking stick he used was one that he carved himself, and was imbued with runes on the bright cherry wood that would help keep it from slipping, or getting lost. It had taken him weeks to fully adjust to using it, and just as he had begun to make progress- both mentally and physically- he’d found himself back in a cell. 

He was free now. Again. But dementors prowled in the back of his mind, and hazy silver masks, and he hadn’t slept a full night through ever since he’d been put in Azkaban. Which was why Alexander Church now found himself frozen in Diagon alley, one hand clenched bloodless on his cane, the other limp at his side. There were so many people, and stone walls on every side, and the overcast day lent a grey pall to the air that reminded him all too much of a Dementor’s cloak.

When he finally managed to take a step, if only to get himself out of the middle of the flowing crowds, he shifted backwards and felt his shoulder collide with another body. 

“Oh- oh no, I’m so- so sorry,” he stuttered. “I didn’t mean- I should have paid attention where I was going… Are you alright?”

Originally posted by katersann

          She used to like Diagon Alley. She liked walking down it, skipping in front of her parents, trying to get them to buy her everything in sight. Now it felt like a completely different place. Like a heavy weight on her shoulders that she didn’t know how to get rid of. And Felicity didn’t know how to stop feeling like that. When the shops closed, when she headed home for the evening, when she had a chance to actually think, all she saw were regrets. Her mind kept swimming with them, sometimes it was too much. At this point, Felicity didn’t even know what she could to do be happy. What things in her life had to change so she could be? 

          Felicity had taken to letting her mind wander whenever she walked anywhere in Diagon Alley. Usually she didn’t pay attention to her surroundings though, which meant she was always causing problems. Today, she found herself reading a book instead of paying attention. It took her a moment to register that she’d bumped into someone. “Oh, sorry,” she said, looking up as she closed her book. “I’m also not paying attention. ‘m fine. Are you alright?”