InsaneJournal

Kingsley in Knockturn -> Diagon -> The Leaky
Who: Kingsley Shacklebolt and OPEN
Where: Knockturn Alley, Diagon Alley or the Leaky Cauldron
When: Late evening, January 29th 1995
Rating/warnings: TBD

Doing night patrols weren't what you'd usually think of as nice, but Kingsley enjoyed it none-the-less. He liked the darkness, even if he knew evil lurked in it. Especially when you were walking up Knockturn Alley, only too obvious to those who knew your face and because you didn't crawl along the walls, and didn't avoid eye-contact if it was established.

Yes, the people on Knockturn Alley knew the tall Kingsley Shacklebolt almost as well as he knew them, even when he was concealed inside his warm hooded cloak. He'd never bothered with other concealment in there, unless he was on a mission. Because he wondered if not they could smell him coming from miles away, since he very rarely saw anything shady going on during those patrols, and even more rarely saw anything that would warrant closer inspection. Informants and look-outs were the obvious explanation together with the small collection of rogue werewolves and vampires who also lurked in the murky alleys and cul-de-sacs who likely could pick out his scent among thousands.. And word travelled faster than a Snitch through Knockturn Alley.

As long as they made no trouble though, Kingsley saw no reason to pester them without just cause. Many of his colleagues were only too eager to pursue and antagonise the miserable existences of Knockturn Alley, more often driven by prejudice than actual suspicions in connection with open cases.

There were of course the matter of the escaped Death Eaters, and Kingsley's eyes were extra alert on this night looking for familiar or suspicious faces and shapes, his ears extra sharply tuned into any tiny tidbits of information that might flow his way in random conversations he passed. There was nothing though, nobody out of place, no faces or voices who set him off.

Which very likely only meant they had already found a safe hiding hold away from Knockturn Alley, which was the almost painfully obvious place to look for them. Kingsley doubted any of them would risk coming here, at least this close to their escape where Auror activity in London and any of the other larger cities still was almost frantic.

As for the regulars, Kingsley didn't deny that their mere presence in the seediest parts of Wizarding London could rouse suspicion, but he also knew that many of them had no other choice if they wanted to survive in some form. Kingsley knew any society had such pockets of misery in their midst, preferring to ignore them as long as they didn't bother anybody with their presence or actions instead of helping those who wanted help, and needed help. But he didn't have to like it. Some couldn't be helped, of course, or didn't want to be helped. But the group of those who could and would was too large for Kingsley to ever feel anything but pity towards the inhabitants of Knockturn Alley.

Reaching the end of the Alley, Kingsley turned around to move back the same way he'd entered, very aware of the eyes resting on him, and the minds wishing him gone so they could go on with their shady deeds and business transactions until the next Auror came by. He decided the next Auror would be him again, once he'd had a warm cup of tea at the Leaky.