Carlotta "Magic the Muggles" Pinkstone (nosecrets) wrote in blurred_lines, @ 2009-01-17 01:40:00 |
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A breeze blew hair into Carlotta Pinkstone's eyes as she stepped up the brick building. The wood stairs hugged the side of the Chemist, and Carlotta climbed them, reaching the balcony on the back of the building and standing there, the wind whipping around her, as she raised her hand to knock on the door. Carlotta knew that Victoria took the Daily Prophet. It was one of the few things that she kept that connected her to the wizarding world and Carlotta was almost tempted to tell her friend to cease the subscription. When Victoria had married her childhood sweetheart, a Muggle, she'd made a decision to live on the periphery of the world she'd found herself able to be part of and although the two friends had always kept in close contact, there were few other things from the Wizarding world that Victoria had kept in close contact with. "Lottie," Victoria's voice held a smile although to Carlotta who'd known Victoria from their first year at Hogwarts, there was certainly a tightness around her eyes. There were few people indeed who could get away with calling Carlotta by her mother's pet name for her. And these days Victoria was the only one who did. "Do come in, the wind has picked up and I don't want you just standing there." Carlotta entered the small flat and the two moved towards the living area. Victoria had already put out tea and unlike normal, Nelson was not sitting in the corner in his rocker. Carlotta noted it but said nothing. Victoria's husband had been steadily decreasing in health for the past year, and she knew that although Victoria would vocalise a good deal of hope in regards to Nelson's condition, that she was more privately much more realistic about the possibility of Nelson living more than a few years. "I hope you've been well," Carlotta said. "I brought more of the potion you've been using, so don't let me forget to give it to you." She took a seat on the sofa and Victoria sat down across from her. "Oh good," Victoria reached for the tea, pouring some for both of them with milk for Carlotta's and a sugar cube for her own. The week's issues of the Daily Prophet were sitting on the table next to the tray of tea and small cakes, but Victoria said nothing directly about them as she gave Carlotta her cup of tea. In truth they were an elephant in the room that she didn't wish to even bring up. She had read them all cover to cover, and believed not a word of them, but she had no idea how to ask what she felt needed to be asked - or even if Carlotta would know the truth. But then, Carlotta usually did know things. As children that had always been how it was with the two of them. Carlotta had been in the know and Victoria had been the Muggleborn who knew nothing about the wizarding world and Carlotta had been the girl who had grown up in the world and had continually pulled Victoria into it. Later though, the tables had turned and as they'd grown older Carlotta had often asked Victoria for information about the Muggle world. And although Victoria knew that Carlotta would have preferred for her to have stayed more involved in the Wizarding World she had never pushed for it.At the moment, Victoria was not certain that she was not relieved that she lived on the outskirts. "The truth Lottie?" Victoria said softly, her eyes glancing at the papers. Carlotta took a sip of the tea and stared at the papers. She'd read them herself of course, and her conversations with Minerva had confirmed her own suspicions. And although Carlotta was hardly one to run from any danger or difficulties, she knew that Victoria's bravery was much more subtle - not a Gryffindor tendency to stick her nose where it did not belong, or to potentially infuriate people. Recently Carlotta felt as if her own bravery had been tempered some with the changes. More than she ever had in her life, she'd started thinking before she said anything and doing anything. She'd grown up in society, or at least comfortable within it, and so her ability to keep her mouth shut was perhaps more than other Gryffindor's might have had a tendency to do. The part of her that tended to over-analyse or think about everything had certainly kicked in fully. "You're still taking the Prophet?" Carlotta asked mildly. "What else connects you to the wizarding world currently?" Victoria stared at her friend. Questions had not been what she had expected to receive in return to her own questions. "Not much," she said, lifting the tea to her lips. "And I had thought to cancel this, perhaps." Carlotta nodded, uncertain whether she should urge it or not. "The truth is a difficult thing right now," she said softly, as if someone might potentially overhear them even though the likelihood of it was slim. Victoria was not attached to the Floo network, and even if a Muggle were to overhear, it would make little sense to them. "The truth, as best as I can tell it, is that the coup, so discussed in the paper was not attempted, but successful, and was not started by Aurors and hitwizards, but rather by the Death Eaters. The Prophet, indeed all media, was under a gag order for a weekend, and the reasons given for why the papers were not delivered, are not accurate. At this point it appears that an editor is to read over every word that is sent out - thus none of this will make it into the paper." Victoria was quiet, sipping on her tea. The news came as less of a surprise than she had wished that it would. She and Carlotta had spoken of the Death Eaters and of the politics and of the situations with werewolves and others. She had also thought that when Nelson left her, as he inevitably would, she would take use of Carlotta's offer to live with her, and to once again be part of the wizarding world, but if the Death Eaters had taken over... "This will be permanent." "It's unclear," Carlotta said. "I doubt that the entire wizarding world will take it sitting down. I know there are some that fight," she thought of Minerva and Albus Dumbledore and wondered if either of the two would be involved in such events. "And will no doubt continue to do so, but nothing is clear and I find it unlikely that it will change immediately," she hesitated, staring at the cup of tea, more serious than she typically was. "Tori, I think it would be wise if you discontinued the Prophet. I shall send my copy to you when I am finished with it, and it will be outside of their normal services. You are so completely removed from the wizarding world, and they are so against those of Muggle birth, there is no sense in continuing to put yourself in a place where there are some aware of you - at least no more so than there currently are." "I also don't know how long it will be until they begin to make their way into the Muggle world. They have no love for Muggles or Muggleborns, and while I have never seen the sense of a statute of secrecy, they would take it away but to harm those who have no power and no knowledge of the wizarding world. I do not even know if you would be safe with me. I have tightened my wards and I have done nothing to currently pull their attention to me, but I cannot say." "And ultimately it would be my decision, wouldn't it?" Carlotta nodded once more. "It would. I don't believe it's something you need to decide tonight - it's possible more information will make things more clear." Victoria wasn't certain that it would. The two had always been close. They shared a love that was nearly as intimate as that she shared with Nelson, in some ways perhaps, because of the magical connection the two of them shared, it was even more so. But this did change her desire to return to the wizarding world - or did it? It was too soon to tell, and regardless she would not leave Nelson immediately. "I think perhaps I shall wait until it is more timely," Victoria sat her tea cup down on the table and looked at her friend. "And I believe I will cancel my subscription to this rubbish," she said with a light smile. There was no sense in inviting trouble. Thus far she had remained not bothered and as Victoria so rarely even used magic - Nelson did not disapprove, but she found that she could live without it and was as happy without it as she was with it - she could not imagine that she would catch their attention too soon. "However, I would appreciate my personal news reporter still providing me with the essentials." Carlotta smiled ruefully. "Your personal news reporter will continue to report." "Then I shall not miss it," Victoria's eyes twinkled slightly. Had she been more connected to the wizarding world, she would have no doubt been more worried, but she was so removed that the entire World was often something that was as distantly removed as her childhood. Thus it was difficult for her to truly feel frightened as she sat in her flat in a world that was largely ignored by the Prophet. "Now, enough of this," she cleared away the papers, stacking them beside the fireplace to be burned. "What is new outside of these things?" |