Michele had spent most of the past two days trying to brush up on her magic. After she'd determined the Trace was no longer on her, she'd gone back to her hostel and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening locked up in her room - thankfully, she didn't have any roommates at the moment - practicing spells. She could levitate, change colors of items, and she was even doing okay with some Transfiguration, though it had taken a couple of tries to turn her book back, once she'd made it a porcupine. On Wednesday she'd headed out to a Muggle neighborhood after work, and had found a walking trail where she'd done more practice, outside this time. Small fires, knocking branches off trees, safety charms, and she'd even stunned a squirrel, though she felt quite bad about it afterwards. She'd just wanted to make sure she could. Just in case.
It had gotten dark around her, and eventually she'd decided enough was enough, casting a warming charm on herself and heading back to the bus stop. It really was a shame she'd never been able to take apparating lessons, as that was one thing that would come in very handy in a pickle. She'd read books, but her fear of being splinched kept her from feeling comfortable enough to try, along with the fear that apparating might be something they tracked, what with the requiring licenses for it and all. So she was doing it the old fashioned way - bus to the tube station, and then back.
It was on her way back that she spotted him, a man that appeared to be casting spells on the houses along the street. Fingers closing around her wand she followed him at a distance, trying to figure out if she should confront him, or quietly undo whatever damage he was doing, or do nothing. After a few more spells, however, she noticed that she recognized what he was casting - it was one of the protection spells that she'd been practicing that afternoon. Michelle didn't quite understand - surely he couldn't know everyone on that street, or in the whole neighborhood, which is what she realized seemed to be his target when he turned the corner and kept doing the spells. From what she knew from the issue of The Prophet that she'd read, protecting muggles was now a crime, and the fact that he seemed to be doing it for whole neighborhoods of strangers seemed quite risky.
She followed at a closer distance and considered making her presence known and approaching him, but wasn't entirely sure if that was the best idea, as she didn't know who he was or what his intentions really were. But then, right as she was about to turn around, she stepped on a particularly crunchy leaf, which seemed to make enough of a noise for him to notice, as he froze. She did too, momentarily, but then cleared her throat, the decision having been taken out of her hands on whether or not to approach him. "What, exactly, are you doing?" she asked, trying not to let on that she actually had a good idea of the answer.