location: muggle london
date: 07.09.79
general starter —Â
“you’re going to work,” sirius tells the toy motorcycle in his hand. his words have absolutely no observable effect; the toy continues to hover an inch above his hand, motionless. in a brave effort to the urge to tear his hair out, sirius kicks at the pavement. all he accomplishes is leaving an ugly skid mark on his boots. he glares at the offending toy — which is still motionless.Â
it’s been a long day at work — everything that could go wrong had and did go wrong. he’d forgotten maybe around a dozen different pieces of paperwork over as many places throughout the morning, and the afternoon hadn’t improved his mood. sirius scowls. he’d thought that going downtown would do the trick. and at first, he’d been thrilled to discover a secondhand shop full of automobile models. i’ll try a levitation charm on this first, he’d thought — but no such luck. after ducking into the nearest deserted alley and checking that no muggles were around, he’d immediately worked through his entire repertoire of levitation, animation, and even featherlight charms.Â
that was two hours ago. by now, the sun’s gone down and the beginnings of that yellowish fog that sometimes rises around the london streets at night is creeping around his feet and the shadows have lengthened to sharp spindly things that reflect eerily in the dusk. but though sirius had ignored the passing time, he couldn’t ignore the set of rapidly approaching footsteps. with a jolt, he remembers that he’s in muggle london and that — oh merlin, how did it come to this? — he’s a ministry employee and this is – well, not strictly legal. what a series of terrible decisions. sirius pockets the model a second too late and turns to his visitor.Â
what’s an unsuspicious thing to say? he’s been out of practice since he graduated. but he manages to school his features into a passable semblance of nonchalance. ( which is really just a caricature of innocence that is anything but. ) “hello there. i’m looking for the nearest floo — tube station. could you point me in the right direction?”
