og indiana jones

Christmas didn’t mean much to Cass on it’s own. It was good business, and she enjoyed that part, and it was always sweet to see what interesting gifts she and her father got each other, always aiming to find something truly obscure. They often ended up selling their gifts, as neither were particularly sentimental, it was all about the challenge for them. 

Her father had come to the village nearby, where Cass had stayed with him in his caravan. The innkeepers wouldn’t give a known werewolf a room, even though he had promised (despite Cass’s hopes) to be out by the full moon. Ridiculous, but they were used to it. 

Now that he was gone, and students were arriving back at Hogwarts, she’d set up a stall full of supplies that people might possibly need for the next term. Seeing someone walk up, she smiled brightly. “Looking for something in particular?” 

“Oh, of course,” she said in the beginnings of a teasing tone. Then Cora gave a little sigh, forgetting to hide her disappointment as her shoulders dropped a little. “I suppose you’re right. Or rather…I hope you are,” she said with a little embarrassment for being so enamored with the creatures. “But I’m sure I’ve taken enough of your time. I promise I’ll stop bombrding you with question now, she finished with a little smile.

“I hope so, I traveled to the mouth of the Nile and back, couldn’t do that without a few fair tricks.” Transfiguration had always been a neat skill of hers, she was proficient now in the spells to morph her features and change the image of herself. She traveled so often as Navi that at times she could look herself in the mirror and be startled that a man wasn’t staring back. 

“No they do not,” Xio had seen the world at the worst, walked through villages in the wake of a travelling army, and knew horror herself. But she was confident in the fact that learning took precedent, that knowledge was her hound that kept her running. “Sometimes you lose a battle, but you keep moving don’t you? What’s the use in letting them win?” Xio was never going to lose.

“Well, that sounds wildly reassuring.” Freda sighed, but she allowed herself to be pulled away all the same. “Is there any reason we’re making a hasty escape? I’m not going to get into any trouble for setting anything alight now am I?”

“But I want to know the story.” Moira looked around, “You’re a lot grumpier than I thought you’d be.” She chattered on. “You know animals can tell when you’re grumpy and it makes them grumpy too. At least, that’s what I used to say. One time I was really upset because I broke my ankle and couldn’t play and then that day my pet goat bit me for the first time.” She nodded along as though to emphasize her own story. 

Bri couldn’t help it, she poked his cheek, teasing him now. “You just smiled. I saw that. I didn’t know you were capable of it.”

Dayo’s arm, snug around Sam’s waist, kept the smaller man against him as he whispered back. “Is this better?” His breath brushed over Sam’s ear. “If you’re using me to make someone jealous, you should be politer.” He teased in a low rumble, although he wasn’t bothered either way. “Maybe my heart is beating fast because I have an attractive man nice and close.”

“If I lie to you, Samuel, you will never know.” She lied as easily as she spoke the truth, finding the two interchangeable. “You already get a good deal.” Cass flashed him a charming smile. “But nice try.” 

“Are we going to the hippogriff now?” Moira said, happiness clearly flooding her. The idea of centaurs attacking a hippogriff made her frown. “But…I’m sure the hippogriff didn’t mean it. I thought Centaurs understood forest creatures.” It seemed just plain mean to attack an innocent Hippogriff just because it was acting like an animal. She frowned, “You know, that doesn’t seem very honest of you, Sam. Are you in trouble?”

Cora burst out laughing at the thought of such a thing happening before saying, “And has anything so scarring happened to you yet, then?” But her shoulders dropped in slight disappointment when he said he didn’t visit them. Mixed with him mentioning of how they weren’t allowed to go into the forest well…he didn’t seem like the best candidate to accompany her. “Oh, that makes sense.”

“Must you make everything difficult?” Mateo huffed, blissfully ignorant to the dire hypocrisy of his words. Here he was, trying to do the right thing, and Sam simply wanted to be petty and childish. Mateo wished he’d done the same thing. In fact… “I thought you might like to be aware that your friend Dayo was kissing another man. And they left to find a private room.” He’d been about to go speak to Milo, someone he thought might be able to help him move on from Sam, but instead seen the two men kiss. Although he hadn’t meant to try use it to hurt Sam, a part of him was glad that Dayo wouldn’t be in the picture anymore. 

“I understand,” Abraxas agreed. Though he didn’t appreciate the apparent secrecy, he also understood why this stranger thought it was necessary. “I’m Abraxas Salah, I’ve actually just arrived. I don’t know many people, that’s why I went along with this. Didn’t know any better for once I guess.”

Xio chuckled briefly before picking up her wand, a friend, a constant companion through her hectic travel-rough life. She tapped the wand to her nose, “Metamorphus,” her features slowly began to change, a young man’s scruffy jaw, her body creating the illusion of a wiry form, a cheeky grin on a lighter face. In the place of a pretty girl, was instead a pretty young man. “My name is Navarro de Leon, a  travelling blacksmith, and this,” her lips flicked, “is how I can get people to listen to me.” Tapping the wand to her nose again the features melted away.

“Everyone listens to men like they know everything, I travel as often as ‘Navi’ as I do as ‘Xio’. Besides, I’ll teach everyone, British, French, African, anyone who wants to know. I don’t care about borders, they change, often. War is constant, why should I care if someone is British or something else?”

He chuckled, impressed at the trick. Most of the metamorphus he knew used their powers for little tricks or to get out of scrapes, but she had excellent control, and figured out a smart way to use her powers. “I stand corrected, you will go far.”

Evie snorted in amusement, a habit that had always annoyed Father because it wasn’t ladylike. “Me, patient? Wait, where are my sisters, I need them to hear this.” She joked before patting his arm. “Sorry, Samuel. I am so used to shortening names. I’m Evie.” Only her husband called her Evelyn, preferring how grown up it made her sound.

“It’s rather hard not to when all you’ve done is hurt him and left!” she retaliated. But her fire faltered as he seemed to almost agree with her. That wasn’t part of the plan. Her jaw worked stubbornly, trying to decide what avenue to take next. “Just do as I said. And as you promised. Stay away from him,” she reiterated once more. “Or I’ll turn you invisible for long enough that you won’t remember what you look like, and then he won’t have to deal with seeing you.” With that— she turned on her heel to walk away.

“That’s all I’ve been doing. You don’t need to tell me to stay away from him, I figured that out the first day I saw him again.” a part of him still wanted to yell at her, refute her claims, because if she thinks he didn’t love Mateo... is that what Mateo thinks? “Tell him I--” no, he can’t ask her to say that, and he can’t re-open these sounds, they need to heal, separately.  

Xio raised her brow,·“Yes, I want to. Water is essential to living, besides I enjoy figuring it out. What use is learning how if I can’t teach anyone else how to do it?” She hummed before looking back at the pump, deciding to scrap it and rebuild.·“What do you ‘thought this through’, the mechanics, yes it’s not too difficult its the execution. Or did you mean teaching muggle blacksmiths?”

“Xiomara de Leon, you can call me Xio.” she held out her hand, a little wet still.

Cora giggled a little at the thought of clothes changing when on least expected. “Oh no. That’s actually quite hilarious, though.” She would have been rather amused to stumble upon Sam in such a state, or any of his siblings for that matter. “Ohh, that all makes sense,” she said, considering his words before plucking up the courage to take a little bit of a dive. “And do you…visit them here…or anything?”