No Cure for Curiosity | Augustus & Lily
For most that orbited around the sphere that was the working world, Friday drew the week to a close; nimble fingers wrapping the five days together as though it were a parcel that was easily laid to one side when they began to construct the next box. However, for those employed at Eeylops, the third Friday of each month offered the opportunity, wrapped hastily and in aluminium foil, for one of them to be chosen to do routine health and maintenance examinations for the owls that they had supplied to the Ministry of Magic the last number of years. The outspoken former Gryffindor found herself in the spotlight, the opportunity being thrust into her hands like a hot potato she hadn’t thrown down quick enough.
Drones of workers were already leaving from the ministry when a brief burst of emerald flames signified her arrival, still licking at Lily’s heels until she stepped from the fireplace but when her feet touched down in the owlery severals minutes later she presumed most had left. The initial reaction to discovering that the Ministry had its own personal owlery, reserved to the top floor of the building, had been raised brows, a slightly gaping mouth and the beginnings of fuck off which she had swiftly turned to a more acceptable shut up, but the expression that now rested on her features was the opposite: due to the fact that after examining one hundred and twelve owls and writing each result down, she was left glaring at an empty box like the missing owl was simply wearing an invisibility cloak.
The copper haired woman was shocked out of her reverie when a brown blur whizzed passed her, knocking her off the platform she had been standing on, watching as the tawny owl headed straight for the lift and impatiently tapped the button in an effort to mirror the countless employees it had seen do the same on its adventures. The doors seem to taunt her as they slid slowly open, already squeezing through the doors once she had made the decision that she should not leave the owl unchecked, huffing in mild annoyance as the creature started down at her from the comfort of the corner of the small box they shared. Once they had ground to a halt, Lily only heard the announcer say “Department of-” before she was running after the creature that had flapped over her head at the earliest possible convenience.
Emerald hues overlooked the long corridors that different from those in the other floors of the ministry, the distinct lack of light or the absence of patrons and employees with their attention focused on the owl in front of her. The pads of her fingers attempted to use the untarnished wall as leverage to round the corner quickly, only when she saw the owl land beside another person did she freeze, long fingers tugged at her collar, the action lingering with mild anxiousness as she began to take in her surroundings for the first time, a voice in the recesses of her mind whispered you shouldn’t be here.
