#edgarbonesknows

VI Quote of the Week:

Heaving a sigh, he rubbed the palm of his hands in his eyes, doing his best to banish the tears that were starting to fade. He was sure they would be back easily enough, but he was glad that they had stopped for now. It was exhausting to bounce between emotions so quickly.                                                                  -- edgarbonesknows, What Gnaws

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He wasn’t as pretty as the newborns on the telly or the ones gracing album covers in photography studios, but he was theirs and he was perfect with his red face and wrinkled skin. He was the most beautiful human, because he was a mixture of his parents and even though he came to be as a surprise he was a gift and neither would change the way it all happened. All he could do was listen to Lily’s soft whispers as she talked to their child, how she introduced them as if he hadn’t done it countless of times when their boy was still growing safely in her belly (’ this is mama and papa, sweetheart, and we have waited for you’); and he couldn’t help but grin happily at the two most important people in his life.                                                                -- on-borrxwed-time, James Drabble

Date: June 3rd, 1980 Time: 11:30AM Location: The Owl’s Perch cafe, Diagon Alley @edgarbonesknows

Septimus Crabbe was whistling as he made his way down the cobbled street of Diagon Alley, cheerful in spite of the grey sky overhead and the light mist of rain that dampened the stones beneath his feet and the shoulders of his robes. The sound attracted the occasional look from passersby, mostly because it had little in the way of recognizable tune, but Sep paid them no mind. He was in a good mood.

He was carrying a box under one arm. It was a sizable container, wedged between his elbow and his hip. The damp didn’t touch it, warded off by an Impervious spell to protect its contents. Every now and then it would give a judder, as if whatever was inside was moving around. When this happened, Sep would give the box a pat, grinning fondly down at it.

Finishing a commission that he was proud of always put him in a good mood. Dropping off new toys at the shops that sold his creations could sometimes be a chore, but commissions were a different story. Then he got to see people react to his work. He got to be praised for it. And the fact that he got to be paid a pretty Galleon or two for it always helped, too.

This one had taken him longer than he’d expected to make. Part of that had been the complexity of the job itself and part had been Sep’s general busy-ness outside of work. Vinnie took up far more of his time than he ever would have thought before he’d become a dad and with his responsibilities as a Death Eater on top of that, he was finding he had much less time to himself. Edgar Bones had seemed like an affable, patient sort, though, so Sep wasn’t too concerned about getting an earful about the wait. Especially when Bones got a look at what Sep had created for him!

As he neared the Owl’s Perch cafe, he paused to stub out the cigarette he’d been working on in between off-key whistling. The wet weather meant that sitting outside wasn’t all that appealing, but the staff at the cafe always made a fuss about smoking, like it was some personal insult to them when he lit up. Even the thought of their annoying faces wasn’t enough to sour his mood, though, and he pushed through the doorway as chipper as before.

“Dora, you gonna make me go by myself?” Ted called up the narrow stairs, checking his pockets to be sure he had everything he needed.

“Sorry daddy, I had feed Pooh!”

“You didn’t give her too much?” He confirmed.

“No, jus’ one pellet, I promise.” She grinned, charging down the stairs.

Ted eyed her hair hesitantly. He knew Andy would have fixed it, but even in its lopsided and loose state, he was pretty sure those pigtails were as good as they were going to get. “Good girl. Now go grab your jacket. It’s still pretty chilly and the sun won’t be out much longer.”

“Got it!” She confirmed, darting into the kitchen and emerging a few seconds later with her purple coat. “And ready.”

Ted nodded and pulled open the door, pausing to make sure he’d put all the details on the note. With the way things had been, he and Andy had set up a note station by the door so that whenever one or the other went out while the other was gone (or sleeping), they’d know exactly where the other had gone. It had done a lot to relieve his anxiety, and made it easier for her to feel good about going out with Dora if she hadn’t been able to talk to him because of his sometimes extensive hours.

“Alright, let’s go poppet.” He said, catching her hand and moving with her down winding little path that lead out to a dirt road. They were well off the beaten track, but that had been the plan. Given Andy’s family, and the danger they bothed with him being a muggle—well farther out had felt best. When they were past the wards he and Andy had worked so hard to set, he drew his daughter close and disapparated.

Time: Early afternoon

Location: Diagon Alley (near Florean Fortescue’s Ice-cream Parlour)

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Remus had known from the very first moment he heard that Crouch was planning on a proposal to allow Aurors so use Unforgivable Curses that absolutely nothing good would come of it, because nothing would make torturing, forcing and killing okay, not even the law. The lines between right and wrong were already quite blurry as they were, but such a law would only smudge things further. The way he saw it, it was applying a weak solution to a much bigger problem that, in the end, would only serve to fetter things further. Perhaps everyone would feel satisfied if such law was approved for what...six months? A year? But then things would move further, people would start to question. What made the use of Unforgivables from the MLE’s part correct, but from the Death Eaters incorrect? If the Aurors could use them, why not the rest of the population? Why couldn’t they be used for self-defense by anyone? It would be a snowball that would do nothing but grow until it turned into a full-blown avalanche.

Now, making Death Eater an actual crime to be arrested for, that he found logical. But legal Unforgivable Curses? The way Remus saw things, you simply could not make the unforgivable forgivable, and making those curses legal was exactly that. So of course it made sense that the Order would have its members discreetly patrol certain areas considering the sporadic protests and disrupts. The spirits were tense and the nerves running thing inside the Wizarding Community, and all it took was just a little pressure to make them break. 

Remus had been assigned an area of Diagon Alley that was somehow a low-risk zone in his opinion. It was the most family-friendly block, including stores like Florean Fortescue’s and that new american toy shop that had arrived some months ago. He had guessed that expecting a protest to kick off there would be like expecting a scholar revolt in a kindergarten. Never would he have thoughts things to escalate to the level of him ending up covered from head to toes in ice-cream of a flavour he did not even like.

Apparently life was no longer satisfied with the whole giving lemons business. 

Early that afternoon, he arrived at Diagon Alley to wait for his order companion to show up. Remus was glad he had been paired with Edgar Bones. Ed had the kind of temperament that Remus felt most comfortable around: gentle, honest and easygoing, a man who took comfort in family. It was quite ironic to think those kind of people made Remus feel more comfortable considering most of his closest friends were loud, chaotic hot-heads. Opposites matched, he guessed. Still, it was nice to have some company that was not dragging him into bizarre situations from time to time.

Leaning against a wall, he scanned the atmosphere while he smoked a cigarette. So far, nothing was out of ordinary. Families with their children, clusters of teenage witches and wizards, and elderly couple here and there. There was a considerably loud crowd near the ice-cream parlour, but it did not seem as a threat of any kind. He supposed everyone was just really enthusiastic about ice-cream.

He was taking the last smoke when he spotted Edgar. Remus hurriedly put what was left of the cigarette out against the wall and threw it in a trash can before waving.

VI Quote of the Week:

Busy plotting how she might sneak into the off-limits areas of the Tower— and more particularly, whether it would be easier to browbeat Tilden or Beth into coming along with her— she was a bit surprised to be brought back to the present by Moody’s question about her family. She glanced at him, colouring a bit when she realized that she’d once again picked up her pace and plowed ahead while she’d been momentarily caught up in her thoughts. She slowed, waiting for him to catch up.                                                        -- perennialgrace, Along the River’s Edge

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Alastor observed the man taking what appeared to be notes and moving his hand around as if drawing something. Crabbe was building off of his initial idea, which Alastor took to be a good sign that his cover story was believable. “I like that. And I think he’d like that too.” This imaginary kid he’d come up with was going to have a ball with this owl.                                                                  -- head-auror-moody, Little Figures

It had been a rough day. Very rough. But in this moment, in the stillness of the shop with the soft muttering of the books coming from between the shelves in the depth of the small building, Edgar found peace. It was calming, like a ward had been put up over this shop to keep the rest of the world away. For a moment, time seemed to stop and it was just them.                                                    -- edgarbonesknows, How Far We’ve Come

VI Quote of the Week:

That day hadn’t been a fun one, he remembered. He didn’t like to go around intimidating people in the Order, but things had to be done. Tilden answered correctly, and Alastor waited for his question in return, however, it didn’t come. Instead, the herbologist went on about the plant and who had given him the pot. Aw, hell. Tilden explained why he was there, but that wasn’t what made Alastor open his door. There was no way in hell that a Death Eater was going to go on about a houseplant in that much detail.                                                              -- head-auror-moody, Speak the Truth

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And thus here she was at Flourish and Blotts, once again browsing through the numerous shelves that were stacked to the ceiling. She was in no rush today and had enough money to purchase any book she wanted, so she was going to choose carefully. She walked down aisles and read the summaries of books before either putting it in a basket she held or sliding it back onto the shelf. It was a calm, domestic image which wasn’t often seen from her.                                                                      -- bellablacklestrange, Literature

Maybe a small victory was better than no victory, Lily thought; at least Marlene acknowledged that she had tried to resist. The terrible thing about the Imperius curse was the way it completely removed a person’s will - or that’s what Lily thought - and to even try to fight it off was an incredible feat. Lily wished Marlene could understand just how much Lily admired her strength for doing that. But she didn’t see the point in continuing the argument when Marlene clearly couldn’t be persuaded. It was like hitting your head on a brick wall, and Lily had enough other things to focus her energy on.                                                                       -- thelionheartedxlily, Check Up

Date: April 1st, 1980 Time: 10:45AM Location: The Owl’s Perch cafe, Diagon Alley @edgarbonesknows

It was a warm spring day to welcome in the month of April, with a bright sky filled with pale clouds, which scudded from horizon to horizon on winds to high up to be felt down amongst the shops of Diagon Alley. The ice and slush that had coated the shopfronts and winding streets for the winter months was finally melting and the promise of warm weather to come was filling the air with cheer.

Septimus Crabbe was just glad it was warm enough to comfortably sit at one of the tables outside. The Owl’s Perch was a decent enough place, but they didn’t allow smoking inside. So it was that he found himself seated at one of the tables near the door, a cup of steaming tea on the table beside him and his feet propped up on a chair. There was an umbrella at the table, but he’d left it unopened, enjoying the warmth of the sun on his face.

He was supposed to be meeting someone. It wasn’t all that often that he met directly with customers when it came to his work. Mostly he dealt with the shops that sold his toys, fulfilling orders they requested or selling them his new stuff and leaving all the customer service nonsense to the shopkeepers. Occasionally, however, situations like this did arise. Apparently this bloke, one Edgar Bones (a vaguely familiar name -- he wondered if they’d met), had a custom order he wanted and whatever it was, the shop in Diagon Alley had decided it would be best if they simply put the man directly in contact with him.

Sep didn’t really mind, he just hoped that whatever he was gonna be asked to make wasn’t stupid. It was always more difficult to make things that he didn’t like. Pink unicorns or girly dolls or that sort of rubbish.

Letting out a long breath of smoke, he looked around for his would-be client. The shopkeeper had given him a vague description (“Tall bloke, dark-haired, dead fit”), but nothing so specific that it couldn’t be a number of different wizards that were wandering by on the street. For the moment, he was biding his time, waiting to see if any of them approached his table.

“Can I get you anything else, Sep?” asked a waitress, poking her head out the door. She was older than him by about half a decade and pretty in a slightly worn around the edges sort of way, but her smile was bright. He returned it with a crooked grin of his own. When you had an unfortunate penchant for starting fights most places you went, you had to learn how to ingratiate yourself with the staff.

“Nah, Aggy, ta. I’m good with the tea.”

She nodded, but before she could return to the interior of the cafe, someone else caught her eye and she waved a greeting. “Edgar! Hullo!”

VI Quote of the Week:

She was touching him. For the most part, Evan lived in a world devoid of touch. By the tender age of three his mother had figured out that he wasn’t the type to be cuddled and cooed over. Even then Evan hadn’t bothered to quibble over words and what was acceptable. She’d gone to sweep him up for a snuggle session and he’d side-stepped her reach. Realizing that moving away wouldn’t dissuade her, he’d given her one of his stuffed animals and walked away.                                                     -- atwistedoldfriend, Small and Unexpected

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Her writing arm lost balance abruptly, causing her to throw an involuntary trace of ink across the parchment and also spill her inkpot. Marlene hissed, cursing under her breath and quickly waved her wand with a useful little charm she knew to gather the ink back and clean the smudge as if nothing had happened. She shot Sirius an extremely nasty glare.                                                                  -- cherrybomb-witch, Back of Class

A giggle nearly broke free at his reaction to lying back on his wound, but she bit her lip, managing to keep it in. His panicked expression ruined the blasé look he had been going for. As did his reaction to Madam Pomfrey returning with the mixture in her bowl. Merlin but he was just a stupid kid. Mary felt almost bad for landing him here, but not quite. He had certainly contributed to it. Maybe this would teach him to leave her alone from now on. Though knowing him, it would probably just encourage Sirius to try harder. Mary hoped it was the former rather than the latter. She didn’t need any member of the band of idiots called the Marauders focusing extra attention on her.                                                                                       -- imarymac, Bludger It