[borgin and burkes]

[ohitsme]

Another day at Borgin and Burkes, and Caroline is bored out of her mind. She hasn't seen Sully in several days, and business has been pretty slow. She's dusted everything she can dust. Ugh. She pokes through another book that's caught her eye, but it's turning out to be a disappointment.

"At this rate, I might go back to freelancing," she grumbles to herself. "At least I wasn't bored back then." Well, she wasn't. But no, she's not actually that bored.

Comments

[ohitsme]

Caroline shrugs, a little embarrassed. "I think the only reason nobody accused me of being a Death Eater in training is that I wouldn't have had anything to be training for." Apparently tarnished reputation indeed. She scratches the back of her head awkwardly. "But thanks." She's not actually going to add that that makes about... two people, because that's frankly unnecessary. And he can probably guess that anyway.

Whatever she might have said next flies out of her mind entirely as she sees the sky outside dim dramatically. "Oh come on, not again." She turns back to Nygma. "Look, you're either going to want to get out of here in a hurry or plan to stay put for a while. Looks like it's time for another Dementor sweep, and they love to linger around here."

[confundus]

"For being a house that prioritizes intelligence, most of our housemates were rather tragically dim." That applies to most of the school, now that he thinks about it. Professors included.

He catches sight of the suddenly darkening sky as she does. It's not a welcome sight. "Bloody hell. I think I'll just wait this out, if you don't mind."

[azkabanned]

The door to the shop more or less just suddenly swings open, but thankfully what comes barging in isn't a dementor. It's just Sully, scruffy and disheveled as ever, though perhaps a little ashen-faced. He shuts the door behind him and looks as if he wishes he could lock it. It takes a moment before he turns to acknowledge the shop's current occupants.

"Hey, Caroline." He nods a hello to his coworker. He has to take a moment to look over the other guy, however. He's not really any more unusual than any of their other regulars. He's just... Sully's sure he's seen him before. "Please tell me you're not a fucking Weasley."

[ohitsme]

Caroline snorts. "That's certainly true. I think idiocy might be a Hogwarts tradition. If I'd known, I think I would have tried to get into Durmstrang instead." She gestures vaguely around the shop. "Make yourself at home."

Then Sully comes barreling in. "Hey Sully." She nods back. She's quietly glad he came in. She doesn't really like the thought of him getting caught out there with the Dementors. And... oh, for fuck's sake, Sully. Tact, please look it up in a dictionary. "No, he's a Nygma. Sheesh Sully. Not every redhead is a damned Weasley, we've been over this." Actually, now that she's said that, she's pretty sure Nygma is in fact a minor Wizarding family... Yeah. Yeah it is.

Her grousing at him is a little less good natured than it would normally be, because she's not super excited about the Dementors in her near future. She can handle them easily enough, but she'd still really rather not. And this time she's got people with her to look after.

[confundus]

Eddie's brows go up about as far as they possibly, his lips curling down into something of a frown. "No. Most definitely not." Caroline's helping with the correction, though 'Sully' is not a name he's unfamiliar with. It takes the briefest of moments for him to remember why.

"I remember you, Walter." His expression relaxes into a smile that's altogether more smug than it probably should be. "Especially the rather spectacular way you dropped out."

He's fairly certain the Gryffindors don't even want to admit he was in their house. They're somewhat prone to wanting to forget their problem children.

[azkabanned]

"Oh a Nygma, pardon me." There's a few good reasons why Borgin doesn't have Sully man the shop. This is one of them. He stalks over to store the satchel he's carrying behind the counter, at least for the moment.

The snobby tone Mr. Nygma adopts gets a narrow-eyed glare. And then... "Eddie Nashton." Sully chuckles. It's a nice distraction from the impending Dementors. "You're one to fuckin' talk, I remember you nearly getting kicked out. Your rep ever recover from that?"

[ohitsme]

"Oh for fuck's sake, can you two children behave for five minutes?" Hopefully Caroline can shut them both up before this gets out of control. She kind of needs to focus. She knows how the Dementors do sweeps, and it's a real good bet that one will try to come swooping in.

And sure enough, here comes one creeping up the street, bringing chill and gloom with it. It hovers about, and when a second joins it they start drifting towards the door. Caroline takes a moment to close her eyes and focus. She has to let them in long enough for them to "search" anyway. She tunes out their muttering and pulls out her wand. Okay. They're hovering in the door and preparing to come closer. Not surprising. Sully's been to Azkaban, so he's probably a familiar and beloved snack source, and Caroline's past makes her a very tempting target as well. Not that Dementors are picky, but the more bad memories a person has, the more fun it is for them. Ugh.

The added cold and awful feelings roll in like a cloud front. But Caroline is ready. Before they can both get in the door, she opens her eyes and casts. "Expecto Patronum!"

And then a large, white shark erupts from her wand and charges across the shop, jaws open and wisps of white smoke rolling off it like water. The Dementors back out of the shop before it can attempt to actually tear them in half with its teeth. It swims in a protective circle in front of the door once as the Dementors continue on their way. It then glides back towards Caroline, giving both men a wide berth. She pats it on the head once and then lets it dissipate.

[confundus]

"It's Nygma," Eddie replies in a voice best described as scathing. Caroline's interjection snaps his attention away long enough, that by the time he re-formulates his response he can already see a Dementor swooping up the street.

He has his wand out and raised as soon as the Dementor makes it to the door. He feels that chill straight to his bones. He knows he's not the only one, either; Aristotle is rapidly feeling like a squishy little icecube in his pocket. That'll have to be dealt with rather soon. He hesitates instead of casting his patronus.

Caroline has no such hesitation, however. He watches as the creatures are chased off by a rather impressively big white shark. He'd thank her, but the first thing he does is go to cover the Aristotle-filled shirt pocket with his hands. He's already too cold, though apparently still lively enough to grasp at his owner's fingers with his tentacles. He'd dropped his quill sometime during the encounter, though.

[azkabanned]

Sully barely registers that Edward says anything. He's too busy staring out the shop windows, at the dark silhouettes beyond them. At any other time, when presented with a threat, drawing his wand would be instinctive; a practiced action, not even requiring though. But right now...

He moves backwards in slow, carefully measured steps. First one approaching, then a second. The sidle up into the doorway and it's like a punch in the stomach, again. He feels the blood drain from his face,and the sort of full-body chill that always ends in shivering. He backs up until his shoulder hits a shelf. He hardly notices. All he can really focus on are the Dementors and their quiet murmurs.

He may hardly notice Caroline cast her spell, but he definitely notices when a big ass shark patronus swims through the air like it's going to have a Dementor meal.

He only shifts his gaze away when the things are gone. And then, it's only to regard Caroline with a slightly-amused arched brow. "A goddamn shark?"

[ohitsme]

Now that the crisis has been averted, Caroline feels the cold sweep over her in a delayed reaction. Between the Dementors and the effort of casting a Patronus, she feels a little ill. A Patronus is a hefty spell, and it's not quite lunchtime, so she's done it on an empty stomach. Great. If only she had some chocolate, but oh well.

She tucks her wand back into its holder and turns to look at the two men. Nygma seems all right, but the little octopus looks unhappy. "Would a warming charm help him any?" She's not sure if it would interfere with whatever else he's cast on Aristotle or even be much good for an octopus, but. Sully looks rough, though. Rough enough that she'll go along with his comment instead of being annoyed. "And yet people continue to fuck with me," she says in a long suffering voice, spreading her hands in a gesture of disbelief.

[confundus]

Eddie casts a brief glance back at Sullivan. He doesn't look good, but given his recent, public parole from Azkaban, well... that's likely to be expected.

His attention goes back to his chilly little octopus, scooping him out of his pocket after retrieving the quill from the ground. "Actually... Would you mind terribly if I borrowed that jar again? He liked it quite a bit." He could conjure a container, but if the jar makes Aristotle happy, he'd rather that.

[azkabanned]

"Least you got a Patronus." Sully shrugs as nonchalantly as he can manage, at the moment. Which isn't much truth be told. He takes a moment to search through his own robe pockets before retrieving a couple unopened chocolate bars. Walking over to the counter to plonk them down takes a lot more concentration than he'd like to admit.

The candy bars end up on the counter between the three of them, all the same. "Got these on my way back. Don't think they'd do me any good though, so they're all yours."

And to his credit, he even looks at Nygma while saying that. It's then he finally notices the other sea creature. He has to stare in disbelief for a second before opening his mouth again. "Is that really an octopus?"

[ohitsme]

"Oh, sure." She hadn't even had a chance to pick it up off the counter yet, so the jar's still sitting there. She nudges it towards them a little. Poor Aristotle.

Then she turns to look back at Sully. "And they say Dark witches and wizards can't cast it," she says with a wry smile. And oh, is that chocolate? Caroline tentatively reaches for one of the bars. "You sure? Thanks Sully."

[confundus]

Eddie taps on the bail jar lightly with his wand, enlarging the container a bit. A second wand-tap fills it with warm seawater. He gently plops Aristotle in. After a moment of consideration, his glasses go in as well. The octopus once again busies himself folding and unfolding them, though with perhaps less panache than earlier.

The presented chocolate gets eyed a little, but he's not about to refuse. "Thank you, Sullivan." He plucks one of the bars off the counter, not pausing in his unwrapping when he answers Sully's question. "Indeed. He's a very special octopus."

And not just because he was interesting to acquire, either. He reaches in to pat the little thing once he's started in on his chocolate. It seems a silly remedy to him even now, but if it works, well...

[azkabanned]

"Well shit, I can't use that as my excuse anymore," Sully pulls a 'well fuck' face. He waves off the gratitude, though. He's past the point of chocolate doing jack shit, really, and he's not that much of a fan of the stuff otherwise. "Don't mention it."

He just settles in against the counter, leaning over to watch the octopus in the jar. He's fairly sure he's seen one of these on tv before, on some BBC nature documentary. He's fairly sure it might even be venomous, which is probably the least surprising thing about Eddie's octopus pet. "That's actually a pretty fuckin cool pet."

[ohitsme]

Caroline watches as Aristotle settles in and starts playing with Nygma's glasses again. As she unwraps her chocolate bar and takes a bite, she gets an idea. She rummages in her bag and picks a decently sized piece of fish off of her lunch. She straightens up and offers it to Nygma. "It's not the same, obviously, but it might make him feel better anyway." She shrugs a little and takes another bite of chocolate.

[confundus]

Eddie's glad to see Aristotle's moving around, if not terribly cheerfully. He grasps at his owner's fingers briefly before going back to playing with the glasses.

He extracts his hand from the jar and shakes off the water, watching her rummaging around and producing more fish from her bag. "It can't hurt." Instead of taking the offered fish, he just slides Aristotle's jar closer to Caroline. "Why don't you?"

He's fairly certain Aristotle won't bite her, at least.

[ohitsme]

"Oh!" Caroline didn't expect that. "Okay." She blinks awkwardly before turning her attention to the little octopus.

"Hey Aristotle," she says brightly. "Would you like this?" She holds the piece of fish out to him, hand just above the water. He seems like an even tempered little thing, but Dementors would make anybody edgy.

[confundus]

Eddie mostly just falls silent and eats his chocolate. Sullivan still looks rough, but he's apparently entranced with the octopus in the jar. He doesn't think he'll interrupt that.

It doesn't take Aristotle terribly long to notice someone's offering him food. He folds the glasses, setting them aside before pulling himself up the side of the jar some, as if to get a better look. He's a little timid in reaching out and taking the fish from her. Once it seems he's certain it's safe, though, he more or less ends up hanging from her hand with a couple tentacles around her fingers. She gave him more fish, so why not.

[ohitsme]

Well that's just adorable. Caroline smiles down at Aristotle. "Well hello." She reaches out carefully with her other hand. If he lets her, she'd like to try and pet him. How does one even pet an octopus?


...Don't say 'very carefully.'

[confundus]

Eddie, as per usual, really can't help but comment on how careful she's being. It's in his nature. "It's fine. If he was pissy he'd be covered in glowing blue rings about now."

Aristotle's a relatively uninspired brown-orange, at the moment. He's far more interested in getting all the attention ever than maybe nipping someone. He really is probably the most spoiled cephalophod alive.