Wandering and Wizardwear

[ebimeep]

Turn down this street, walk around the block…that did it. Iseul was officially even more lost than she used to be.

She had been wandering around Hogsmeade for ages, trying to find somewhere to eat lunch that didn’t have copious over consumption of alcoholic beverages or a filthy floor. So far, it had been one or the other, sometimes both, but never neither. The witch gave a despondent sigh and resigned herself to finding someone else and putting herself at their mercy of finding a place to eat. Either that, or find her way out of the town and eat up at the school.

Unfortunately, when she next looked at a clock, it was past the lunch hour and food was no longer readily available to those unlucky new students who had gotten lost in the village.

Iseul had done a rather uncharacteristic move and gone down to Hogsmeade on her first weekend at Hogwarts. She didn’t know anyone very well yet, and wasn’t expecting to meet other people very soon. Classes had just started for her, and they were pretty easy. The girls in her dorm room were still strange entities to her. When one adds all those components together, it would make a situation where Iseul would be holed up in the restricted section of the library reading books on practically everything. However, she had decided it was too nice of a day for that, and walked down to the village. And promptly gotten lost, annoyed, and hungry.

Finally, she spotted a likely shop – Gladrags, a clothing store. It looked nice and clean, and not too busy, unlike many other shops in the village. Iseul pocketed her wand and started towards the door, hoping there would be someone to tell her a good place to eat.

She entered the cheery shop and glanced around. It was full of wizarding robes and accessories, odd hats and wand bags. Iseul highly doubted she would purchase anything here, and began looking around for someone to ask.

Behind the counter of the shop there was a young witch with dark brown hair. Iseul couldn’t see her very well, but she looked like a possible target for information. Stepping forward, she spoke.

“Hello?”

[D'rorah Philosophy]

((ooc: I hope it's okay that I barged in. If not, let me know and I can delete ))

D'rorah had gone to Hogsmeade that day ostensibly to chaperone the younger Ravenclaw students who had taken the day's trip into the town. As the prefect, she knew she had to make a good showing of doing such things from time to time. And, in any case, it gave her a good excuse to come check on things out here. After all, she had her cottage to attend to... and she needed to bring some new books back from the small library she kept here for her research.

Having seen to the students and having switched out her books for new ones in the cottage, she set back out. She thought perhaps she would take lunch at one of the nearby restaurants, but the place she preferred was closed for the day. D'rorah pondered briefly simply going back to the cottage and cooking something, but she knew the pantry wasn't fully stocked, as she wasn't living there full time. And it really wasn't worth a special shopping trip.

It was as she rounded the corner near the clothing store that she spotted the newest transfer to Ravenclaw house, Iseul Flynn. Just as D'rorah stepped up to address, her, Iseul disappeared into the shop. Gladrags... she glanced up at the sign briefly and sighed. She would never buy anything from here herself. Her own preferred style of clothing was so modest that most shops didn't carry anything she would buy. After all, it seemed the modern trend was to wear less and less clothes, while D'rorah seemed to trend more towards wearing more and more.

She nearly made up her mind to turn and head off, but Isuel had looked a bit lost. She didn't want to just walk away if she could be of some help. Entering the store after her, she avoided the racks and waited while Iseul addressed the clerk. [blue]"Good afternoon, Miss Flynn, Miss Collins,"[/blue] she greeted quietly, not bothering to feign interest in the store's wares. After all, anyone would know after only a brief glance at the thick, tailored woolen robes that covered her from chin to ankle and wrist that this wasn't really her sort of store.

[Caitlin Collins]

It was another dull shift at Gladrags. Cait had often considered giving up her job there, but the money wasn't too bad and she really did need it if she was going to rent an apartment in London while working at St. Mungo's. Her parents didn't want her to live in London; they wanted her to 'use loo powder' or 'arrapate... that teleporting thing' to work, as her mum had tried to explain. But Cait really didn't think she could stand much longer living with them permanently... there was still a whole other year to go yet. And it was generally quiet now in the shop anyway, an excellent opportunity to do homework with few disturbances. The novelty of Hogsmeade visits had waned, so although people did still visit it was generally those who needed something specific rather than to just explore.

As such, Cait was perched on the stool behind the counter, a book in her lap, another floating – literally – nearby while a notebook on the counter itself was full of scrawled notes. Revising for exams was not her strong suit, Caitlin had discovered. The fact that she had never had to take proper exams like these before didn't help in the slightest. And memorising everything for Herbology was proving diabolically difficult. She had taken to making up rhymes and anagrams and patterns to remember all the plants' names and uses and appearances... Currently, she was revising the different properties of wood used in wands. Technically, she should be tidying or checking stock – but she got the work that was needed done, so her boss never needed to know she was doing this as well.

She was concentrating so hard that she didn't even notice the door open and Iseul's entry at the front of the shop. Tucked away behind a stray clothes rack that needed sorting, it protected her slightly from view from the main entrance. When Iseul finally spoke, Cait jumped violently and almost fell off the stool. Her concentration broken, the floating book did drop down to the counter with a loud slam as Cait's eyes darted up from her notes to see a girl around her own age – apparently she hadn't even noticed the entrance of a customer. [yellow]"Hi... sorry. I didn't see you,"[/yellow] Cait apologised immediately, although that had been fairly obvious already. [yellow]"Were you looking for something in particular?"[/yellow] she asked, slipping into her normal sales assistant persona. She didn't recognise Iseul from Hogwarts as the new girl she had been asked to keep an eye out for, having been rather distracted at the time by something or other.

She jumped slightly again, although not as much this time, when she heard another voice speak out from behind Iseul, her eyes seeking out D'rorah and relaxing when she realised that was who it was. [yellow]"Hi Dee,"[/yellow] she greeted the older prefect with a slight smile, not used to seeing her in here. Although she didn't seem to be showing much interest in the clothes anyway.

[ebimeep]

When the young woman nearly fell, Iseul gave a dry grin at the other girl's surprise. "Sorry if I surprised you." It was glaringly obvious that Iseul had, but some things just had to be said. "I wasn't actually looking for anything to wear..." She thought she recognized the other girl as a Hufflepuff student up at the castle, but Iseul wasn't quite sure. She hadn't taken much notice of the other students who were not Ravenclaw, as she preferred to focus her current (failing) socialization efforts on those she would see at least twice a day.

This was the type of shop that she would hardly even consider buying anything in, but Iseul didn't feel like being particularly caustic at the moment. Right then, she just wanted to eat lunch and get back to studying, and perhaps write home to her mother. She still missed her home in London and the old school in Korea, and writing to family dissuaded those uncomfortable, awkward feelings a bit.

The arrival of another voice made her stop short and turn around with another half-smile on her face. It was the Ravenclaw prefect who seemed to be such an odd combination of complete serenity, cold aloofness, and general friendliness. It was strange, and though Iseul herself wasn't the most normal girl, D'rorah still made the witch nervous.

"Hello. I was just looking for directions...either back to the castle, or to a...decent place to eat lunch. I do seem to have gotten myself a bit lost." Something she had quite the talent for, it seemed, but that was aside the point. "I don't suppose either of you could help me." Logically, the at least one of the two girls would be able to help her. But unlike most of the rest of Iseul, her luck did not run on logic.

"Do either of you have any suggestion? Otherwise, I shall go irritate someone else." She spoke with a slight Korean accent, caused by all the years of school in South Korea. Iseul still felt slightly out of place, even in her home nation, and often found herself accidentally slipping back into Korean or forgetting an English word as she spoke. It was rather embarrassing. She often found herself writing nonsensical phrases in Hangul, as forming the smooth characters was calming.

Pinching the bride of her nose, Iseul brought herself back to the present and took a step away from the two witches so she could easily see them both without turning into an awkward position.

[D'rorah Philosophy]

As Iseul turned to face her, D'rorah nodded slightly in her direction. She realized she had been correct... the newer girl was a bit lost in Hogsmeade. She supposed that was easy enough to understand. After all, there wasn't much around here in the way of clearly marked streets or directions. She blinked a couple of times at the statement that Iseul would go irritate someone else. Her accent was clearly discernable to to D'rorah, who had spent so much of her time dedicated to learning languages.

[blue]"Well, I will admit that Hogsmeade does not seem to offer much in the way of interesting places to dine,"[/blue] she replied. [blue]"In fact, I have found the traditional cuisine of Scotland to be somewhat off-putting. My preferred restaurant is closed... however, I had been considering cooking lunch. Though either one of us could quite easily assist you with making your way back to Hogwarts, I am sure."[/blue]

She paused a moment and glanced at Caitlin. [blue]"There is an Italian restaurant in Diagon Alley. Of course, I realize that the distance to Diagon Alley is prohibitive to going by train or any other such form of transport from here. But I suppose it would not be overly deviant from school protocol to apparate there for a quick lunch."[/blue]

Truth be told, though she was typically quite observant of rules imposed by most forms of authority, she had little love for the rules of Hogwarts. After all, one could only have so disastrously unpleasant encounters with the Headmistress before one's willingness to adhere to her rules waned a bit. And D'rorah had certainly had more than her fair share of unpleasant encounters with the Headmistress. She glanced to Caitlin. [blue]"How much longer is your shift here, Miss Collins? Perhaps we might all three venture forth together.

[Caitlin Collins]

Caitlin blushed slightly when Iseul grinned at her almost falling off the chair. It was not as much as she once would have, though. She was slowly becoming less affected by small things like that, with such big events going on in other parts of her life. There was only so much she could react badly to, and she was purposely trying to stay happy of late. It was a pleasant change to the long months since January.

She was a little surprised when she heard Iseul wasn't looking for anything to wear – then why had she come into the shop? Having not recognised her face, Caitlin was unaware that she was new. Had she realised that, it would have made more sense that she might have wandered in looking for directions. Hogsmeade might not have been as bad as Hyderabad for getting lost when she first visited, but it was still easy enough to lose your way.

D'rorah replied even while Cait was still thinking if there were any particularly nice places to eat in Hogsmeade. The Leaky Cauldron served hot meals, but there wasn't a great deal of variety there. Whenever she was here over lunch she just went to the elf kitchens at Hogsmeade and brought some sandwiches. She nodded at Dee's mention of an Italian, remembering when they had gone there before shortly after finding out she was a Shadow Warrior. She was a little surprised, however, to hear Dee suggest breaking the rules and apparating there. The older prefect always seemed like a staunch defender of the rules, doing her prefect patrols far more often and far more effectively than Cait ever had. [yellow]"Yeah, it's nice there,"[/yellow] Caitlin added with a smile for Iseul. By now she had realised that the Korean girl must be the new girl who had been pointed out to her only a few days ago, and felt a little bad for not remembering.

She was surprised again at D'rorah's query as to when her shift finished, glancing up at the clock on the wall, glad to see time had passed rather quickly while she had been doing her homework. [yellow]"Not that long, Amy should be coming in for her shift in about ten minutes,"[/yellow] she replied, naming the other girl from Hogwarts who worked here.

[ebimeep]

((ooc: I'm so sorry, I got sick, my computer got sick, we all died and I just got better. ><))

D'rorah nodded at her, and Iseul gave a tiny smile back.

"Really? I haven't eaten much here, though, so I wouldn't be the greatest connoisseur of the local food." Briefly, she wondered what the 'traditional fare of Scotland' was, but that was quickly pushed aside. D'rorah's speech seemed a little old-fashioned even to Iseul - of course, she wasn't one to talk, as her sentences were often peppered with 'shalls' and 'perhaps'.

"Italian sounds fine, but I'm not sure my mother would be thrilled about me leaving campus." Frankly, Iseul was surprised the prefect would suggest breaking a school rule. It didn't seem like a trait a head of school would particularly attentive to attain in their prefects. But, of course, if two prefects were willing to break a rule, Iseul figured that she wouldn't be too badly reprimanded for following their lead.

Iseul didn't know Amy (unsurprising), and merely stood watching as the two veteran Hogwarts students conversed about shifts and times. "I am perfectly fine with either opton, but I wouldn't want to intrude on D'rorah."

[D'rorah Philosophy]

((ooc: Don't worry about it. I know I've had finals and such and traveling for work, so we're all crazy and hectic around here! Glad you're feeling better though))

[blue]"For the sake of propriety, I suppose we should remain in the village. I have dispensation to go to Diagon Alley for the purpose of attending to Ollivander's. I would not wish to do anything which might anger your mother."[/blue]

She looked over at Caitlin as she answered and nodded. Ten minutes wasn't very long, she expected Amy would be along any minute now. Her face was stoic except for a slight twitch at her lip as the name was mentioned. Amy... Dylan had caused her a lot of pain on account of that name. She certainly had no desire to be about when the girl turned up. Especially now that Amy and Dylan were no longer together and D'rorah knew somehow she would be blamed for it. [blue]"Well, Miss Allen has a tendency for punctuality, if nothing else,"[/blue] she replied. [blue]"I should run next door to purchase a few quills and some new stationary. Perhaps by then the two of you will have decided upon a preference? Either option is perfectly fine with me."[/blue]

[Caitlin Collins]

Cat winced slightly at the thought of 'local food' – the only exclusively Scottish food she knew of was haggis, which didn't appeal to her in the slightest. Then Scottish drinks? Irn Bru... and she doubted many at Hogwarts would even know what that was because it was muggle. She'd only tried it once, and had thought it was horrible. She could well understand the wariness of what would happen if her mother found out – Cait herself had been ordered that she was to stay in Hogwarts and Hogsmeade ever since she had been allowed back in January.

She was not surprised when D'rorah excused herself at the mention of Amy. It was indeed the same Amy who had dated Dylan for a short while after he broke up with her, and from all accounts she had heard he had been flaunting it in front of her for quite some time before he came to his senses. She didn't like to think of Dylan acting like that, but at least now she knew that there had been a reason behind all of it – Dark Phoenix's poisoning influence. Even so, it must still hurt D'rorah and hadn't been that long ago. [yellow]"Okay... shall we come and find you afterwards?"[/yellow] Cait suggested, to prevent D'rorah having to come face to face with Amy again. She herself got on well enough with her Ravenclaw colleague, but it had been a little awkward knowing she had been involved in the split between D'rorah and Dylan.

When Dee had left Cait turned to Iseul again. [yellow]"If you wanted to stay in Hogsmeade, there's always the Leaky Cauldron. They serve regular pub food. Or there's Madam Puddifoot's if you just want a snack – that's a cafe just up the road,"[/yellow] she told her.

[ebimeep]

Alright, then. Remain in the village it was. "Thank you. I'm sure she wouldn't like me to break any rules, not when I've just arrived here." Or, you know, later on after she had been there for four years, rule-breaking would still not be accepted, but that was unimportant. Iseul's mother was a bit of a stickler for rules and had ingrained that path in her, even though her daughter wasn’t naturally an obedient or compliant person.

This punctual 'Amy Allen' seemed to have had a bit of a flap about her in the past - something D'rorah and Caitlin seemed to know about all too well. Especially D'rorah, who seemed to have some more painful memories about the girl. Iseul, of course, had no idea who Amy was or what she had done, and couldn't say she wasn't interested. It wasn't exactly the right time to question about whatever had happened, though, as D'rorah was making a timely exit and Caitlin was asking her something about whether she would prefer Madame Puddlefoot's or the Leaky Cauldron. The Leaky Cauldron sounded slightly questionable - after all, a leaky cauldron was not exactly desirable - but Madame Puddlefoot's was just for

"I think the Leaky Cauldron might be better. I am very hungry." Now that she said it, it sounded odd and stiff. Iseul paused for a moment. "I'm really hungry. I am awfully...never mind. the Leaky Cauldron sounds fine. Is it far?" What an awful display of her English skills.

[D'rorah Philosophy]

"Okay... shall we come and find you afterwards?"

[blue]"I will be just next door,"[/blue] she replied. [blue]"With any luck, we will all emerge to head to lunch at the same time."[/blue] She heard Cait mention Madame Puddifoot's as the door closed behind her. D'rorah hoped quite strongly that that wasn't the final decision. If it was, she would insist they allow her to cook lunch for all of them at her cottage. She wasn't certain she could stomach the frilly interior of the tea shop for an afternoon... or the sickeningly sweet sweets the place seemed to prefer to serve.

Allowing the door to close behind her, she made her way over to the stationer's shop and began a leisurely perusal of the quills and parchments for sale. There were countless odds and ends... quick quills, dictapens, stationery of many designs--several of them with some sort of movement or animation on them. D'rorah picked out a few of the sturdier quills and several bottles of ink, along with some self-blotting parchment meant to prevent ink smears when one was writing.

Satisfied with her selections, she made her way to the front of the store and had the shop keep begin packaging her items as she paid for her selections. After lunch, she had a heavy afternoon of research planned, so she would be putting the quills and parchment to immediate use alongside her notes and texts.

[Caitlin Collins]

[yellow]"No worries. I'd be in trouble as well if my parents found out I'd left Hogwarts, so it's probably a good thing to stay here anyway,"[/yellow] Cait replied. Although she was used to keeping secrets from her parents by this point, there was no knowing when one or other might slip out accidently. It had happened before, and she was sure it would happen again. It probably was best to keep her secrets to a minimum of the ones that were absolutely essential, rather than sneaking off for lunch in Diagon Alley.

She smiled slightly at Iseul's attempts to put what she was thinking into words, and then her subsequent dismissal. Cait knew what she meant anyway. She would have commented to say that any of them sounded fine, but she didn't want to draw attention to it. When she had been learning Hindi she had been teased mercilessly for her pronunciation. After a while she had gotten used to it and laughed with them, but at first she had just been embarrassed at her communication difficulties. [yellow]"Not at all, it's just about a five minute walk down the road,"[/yellow] Cait told her as she began to pack up the rest of her books. There was no chance she would be able to do any more work now – and sure enough, just a few moments later Amy walked through the door, early as expected.

She greeted the Ravenclaw in a friendly enough manner, if rather distanced and polite due to the whole mess with Dylan. It was all a little awkward really... She pulled her bag onto her back as Amy took her previous seat , calling out a farewell before beckoning Iseul out of the shop, holding the door open for her. She turned her head to see D'rorah through the window of the stationery shop, apparently just paying for her orders. [yellow]"Looks as though she's almost done,"[/yellow] she told Iseul, turning away from the window to look at the other girl properly. [yellow]"How long is it you've been at Hogwarts?"[/yellow] she asked curiously.