Carlotta "Magic the Muggles" Pinkstone (nosecrets) wrote in blurred_lines, @ 2008-04-29 16:56:00 |
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Carlotta arrived promptly at the small tea shoppe she had mentioned to Rookwood earlier in the journals. Her mother had always taught her that a lady arrives promptly and on time. Carlotta was certainly not one to follow rules and procedure simply to follow rules and procedure, yet in her long and mostly productive life, she had discovered that following that simple rule tended to get better results than if one showed up when and how one pleased. There were certain aspects of fine society that should be followed if one wanted to be taken seriously. And while Carlotta had certain ideas she didn't mind people thinking were absurd, others, such as her work with Squibs, she took quite seriously and wanted to be taken quite seriously with. The shoppe itself was small and Muggle. There were about seven round tables about the floor, decorated with plastic flowers and white Battenberg lace tableclothes. The flowers were less than fresh looking, in fact the table Carlotta had ended up choosing had flowers that were not only quite plastic, but quite dusty, however the tea was always brewed expertly, and Carlotta did love the lemon cake they made. It might not have been afternoon tea at the Savoy, but it would be a fine cup regardless. She took a seat, adjusted the small - at this date somewhat dated - hat she had on her head, and turned her attention to examining the different types of teas they could bring her. There were several unique flavours, but Carlotta felt she probably wanted to keep it simple today. She had a good idea what type of tea she would prefer, but she decided she would wait to order the tea until Rookwood arrived. They might as well order at the same time. Augustus' trek to the Muggle established wasn't direct; he had to stare at a map of London he had brought from his office at work. He usually did better with street names. This week was nerve-wracking to say the least; he had finally resumed his "normal" sleep schedule, though still lacked the recommended minimum. Monday hadn't jarred him, for the most part. Work of the more publicised sort of work usually made him vigilant, if not overly cautious for a few days. Luckily, tea, coffee, biscuits, and whatever else the Muggle business served were a distraction during the middle of a work day. Keeping tabs on Pinkstone wasn't so bad either; he honestly didn't dislike her. She actually had a certain quality that was hard for him to pinpoint – tenaciousness, perhaps? In the final stretch, he found himself darting between the pedestrians. Lateness wasn't his code to live by, but most of his co-workers and friends had realised by now that he sometimes would arrive a minute before or after a set time. Luckily today, the intervention of a Timeturner wasn't a requirement to get him to Convent Garden Tea and Cakes on the dot. He slowed to a stroll as he located the teashop, meanwhile adjusting his blue chequered shirt. The "Muggle" dress wasn't too uncomfortable for him in honesty; Augustus lived in middle of downtown Ipswich and always was transfiguring his clothing. Any Muggle would likely find one or two oddities in Augustus' methods – for example, his collar was folded inside rather than outside as it properly should be. After locating and then giving a silent wave and smile Carlotta's way, he pulled out the chair directly across from her. He supposed flattery might be the best form of initiating this conversation; additionally, he couldn't think of a smart compliment for her hat. Augustus briefly rubbed his palms on his lap and then reached for what he assumed to be a menu. "Hello! Goodness, I hope I wasn't late – it was certainly looking that way last time I checked the time." Before she could retort, he gave the surrounding space a quick glance. "Well this is quaint, I dare say. Are the flowers real?" He gave Carlotta a brief wink and then perused what the Muggles were serving for drinks. Carlotta gave an amused smirk. Augustus Rookwood amused her. The two had been given a number of opportunities to interact in one form or another and while she didn't believe he precisely supported her causes, he seemed at the least tolerant of them, which was more than she could say for a number of people in the Wizarding World. She believed he was joking a bit about the flowers, but as she was certain he was not used to Muggle things, she couldn't be certain. "A very real plastic, I believe," she said with a smile. "I haven't ordered tea yet," she added. "I wasn't certain what your preference would be. They have a lovely Earl Grey blend here, and a nice Darjeeling. And of course there are other options as well." She handed him the card that printed each of the available teas, prices for brewing and so forth. He Muggled rather well, Carlotta thought, as she waited for him to look over it. Many wizards simply didn't take the time to care whether they stood out like a sore thumb, and while Carlotta did believe that the magic Wizards had could be very useful to Muggles and that they should not be stopped from practising it, she found the head in the sand philosophy many wizards had in regards to Muggles to be unhelpful at best and downright damaging at worst. For two cultures to live in such close proximity to each other and to never mix, it seemed artificial. Despite her fullblood heritage, Carlotta had grown up used to Muggle dress and her outfit, although eccentric, was impeccably Muggle. Between her mother's work, her father's education, and her best friend being a Muggle born, along with Carlotta's own philanthropic interests, Carlotta had learned to fit in. "Do you have a preference?" She added. "Oh, and I recommend the lemon cake, if you like lemon," she added. "Although there are some other lovely options as well." Augustus was somewhat tolerant of Muggles, in his own manner. He didn't really care about Muggles, for the most part. They never much interested him. Still, he did find interest in certain topics, such as the roles wizards played in certain past societies. A peace or coexistence would have been interesting...perhaps. But Muggles, at least in Augustus' mind, were completely different creatures when it came to society and ideas in this age. Factories, noisy automobiles, and even some of their unbearable music – finding reasons to like or care for them was increasingly difficult. He was not joking about the flowers. Soon after mentioning them, he picked one up, inspecting it within his hands like a curious child. "Plas-tic...one of their inventions, correct?" While he had not taken the class, he had looked at the books of others and occasionally heard mention of Muggles and their devices at work and during research get-togethers. While he was busy looking at the artificial stem of the "flowers," Augustus had been listening to Carlotta attentively. "Those are nice options indeed...but—" He hastily placed the flowers back in their vase and took the card. "Tea...well," he gave a little shrug and smile. "I'm hardly the connoisseur. Maybe...a Nuwara Eliya with lemon." Fine, he wouldn't drink the coffee he wanted. "I believe I'll start with the tea…oh and maybe a few shortbreadbiscuits." "It is," Carlotta remarked. She had no particular love for plastic flowers. She felt that it was always more classic to have the real thing, fresh and with pretty colours and a pleasant aroma, but she was at least used to the concept. "It is some bizarre combination of minerals or..." she realised she wasn't quite certain what was in plastic. "Well, they make all sorts of things from it, these flowers and other things." She waved a hand about. "They don't wilt or go old, which I suppose we have spells and charms that help keep flowers fresh, but these will never regardless." "How have you been Augustus?" She asked, after she made certain the orders were placed. "It seems to long since we have had the opportunity to talk and it is always a pleasure." Carlotta had a certain formality to her, yet, she was always willing to talk to someone she considered an equal and Augustus was certainly someone she considered an equal. They had an interesting relationship, but it was one that she enjoyed. It was typically intellectually stimulating. "I couldn't begin to comprehend whatever that means!" Augustus said with a laugh. "Once again an alternative to magic...quite interesting." He had somewhat misinterpreted the complete meaning of plastic, but teaching Rookwood that entire concept in one sitting might be asking a bit much. Carlotta was always fair, at least when it came to conversation. How was he? Well, somewhat taxed, now that he remembered the entire Kneazle Incident. Not too well, considering he had a stack full of paperwork waiting for him upon his return to work. Ultimately, that meant he was absolutely fine. "I am all right. A bit overworked, I suppose, but isn't everyone lately? Luckily, I am taking a holiday until early next month." He smiled, though not excessively, "how are you? I'm beginning to miss your Muggle incidents, to be honest...you haven't decided to stop those, have you?" Of course she wouldn't – this was Carlotta Pinkstone, he was speaking to! Still, Augustus liked teasing, if gently. Carlotta laughed out right. Her laugh was the sort that some would find infectious, it seemed rather younger than she looked, although Carlotta had always been young at heart. Perhaps being single, never having children, and being allowed to do her own thing for most of her life was part of what had caused her to be this way. "Oh, Merlin know, Augustus!" She clapped her hands twice. "I have absolutely no intention of ceasing my demonstrations. There are people out there who need my help. Do you know I was able to raise 6000 galleons for Squibs last month? Squibs have such a better idea of what Muggles are actually like, I find. They straddle the two worlds in a similar way as Muggleborns, although it is from the other side. They are familiar with magic, not Muggles, but as they are unable to do magic, they learn to do as Muggles do. And Muggleborns, they are familiar with Muggles, not Magic, but they learn the Magic quite well. It is remarkable to me how people are able to learn and change." Carlotta was a philanthropist and an activist and as such nearly every conversation she had was attempting in one way or another to get an individual to either believe and support her cause or to donate money to the cause. Despite the times she and Augustus had spent in conversation, she continued to do so - even though he had not shown much interest in the past. "A holiday should be pleasant for you, then. Two weeks or three? Will you be traveling?" Briefly, Augustus speculated if Carlotta was laughing at him spitefully, but her eyes and demeanour quickly dispelled and doubts he had. He couldn't understand why Squibs would need 6000 galleons if they were able to adapt for the Muggle world without much of a problem. His scepticism was masked with a nod and sip of his tea, followed by a brief nip of a mild biscuit. "People certainly adapt well, I find...for anything tossed their way." There was a small stretch of time Augustus spent trying to form a decent response, but luckily Carlotta wasn't one to completely focus upon one topic. "Much-needed holiday, though it's partially for work! Only a week and a half, honestly. Yes, some travel – I'm attending a magical research conference in Rome. While that takes place, I'll be visiting Germany – Walpurgis celebrations and relatives. All good, harmless fun. You know the Muggles there even celebrate it. Quite a few attend the local celebrations alongside wizards." Carlotta had found that many squibs adapted well only if given extensive help. "You'd be surprised how much it can take," she mused. "So many Squibs are ill prepared as young adults to form any function in the non-magical world. Their magical relatives are ill prepared to truly assist them in being ready for the Muggle world, so unless they continue living with a Magical relative, dependent upon the Magical relative for most of their needs, Squibs struggle." Her mother had started the Society for the Advancement of Squibs for precisely this reason. "It's one of the reasons we have the Society for the Advancement of Squibs," she noted. "It helps them be more independent and sooth the tension between the magical world and the non-magical world. Of course if there were no real separation between the two, it would be easier for them." Carlotta couldn't help putting in a plug for her own personal beliefs as well, but then she was moving on quickly. This celebration, with Muggle and wizard alike was precisely the sort of thing she liked to promote, and she got very excited very quickly. "Oh but that sounds like a wonderful holiday! A magical research conference - Rome is such a lovely city isn't it? - and Germany! I do so love Spatzle," she added. "My mother used to make it when I was a little girl, her Grandfather came across from Germany to work for the Ministry, you know. Fell in love with an English witch and stayed here, but the family does have certain foods that have made it into the history. My house elves do an excellent job with the Spatzle. What do the celebrations there entail?" While some might assume Carlotta loved mainly her Squibs and Muggles, the truth was that Carlotta simply loved life. She loved creatures of all types and culture from different places, and in her younger days she had traveled quite widely. Frankly, she thought to herself, I should begin traveling some more. It's always so enlightening. Augustus didn't know much about the subject of squibs, in honestly. He had been misinformed for the most part, even though his father had sometimes taken efforts to discuss Muggles, one of the man's late interests. "I know some magical families, especially Purebloods, just kick Squibs out the door once they're old enough. Really a shame...I would be interested to hear a non-magical perspective now and then." "Rome is nice..." he left the conference at that, though he wouldn't have minded actually discussing it. Still, maybe it was for the best he did not mention that certain research topics included defining the differences between Muggles and Wizards, not the similarities. Luckily the conversation moved to the topic of lineage and Germany, always a welcome topic for him. "Ah yes, spatzle...my mother made that as well! But my grandfather made the best I always had...he was German. Do you know how to make it?" At times, it was astounding to discover that his situation wasn't that unique. He wasn't disappointed, though. With the influx of French, learning that another witch or wizard actually had some German background was a refreshing change. "It seems a constant in my family that Pureblood lines end. My maternal grandmother had a Muggle a few generations back –she married my German grandfather, and he was the only son of one of those incredibly old-fashioned Durmstrang families. It was actually quite similar to your great-grandparents' situation, just that they moved to Germany, not the other way around. Amusingly, their daughter, my mum, brought an end to the pure Rookwood line." Augustus gave a light laugh. "Walpurgis? The general festivities, honestly... The traditional celebration is at Brocken Mountain, that's in the north. It used to be the main one, I'll admit that. Just some fun, games, food, music, the general. They light a few bonfires and such. The problem is, the Muggles there have gone through government changes and you spend most of your time worrying about whether or not one is going to see you and think you're intruding. You can find a lot of Kneazles there at Brocken, but the Muggles call them "Wild-cats." A few wizards got injured one year at the festivities there, so the popularity of Brocken has decreased. I go to one of the smaller, local festivals in the south in the Schwarz...Black Forest at Kandel Mountain. It's southern and local, so you see about as many Muggles as wizards. The German Ministry oversees most of the celebrations they know magic-kind attend, just to prevent anyone from using obvious magic. My cousin did one year and they fined him quite a bit. Some runic magic takes place at the locations where there are no Muggles...and we of course get rather intoxicated and poorly attempt womanizing all night." Taking a sip of his tea, Rookwood almost choked on it and raised a hand to pause any possible ire from Carlotta. "That was a joke, seriously nothing but a dreadful joke." He wondered is he should bring back Carlotta a living Kneazle or two just for a present. Carlotta nodded her head. With so few actual pureblooded wizarding families about she was never surprised to learn that a wizard was halfblood or even merely fullblood. She imagined there might be a few more families with muggles in their family trees then admitted to it from time to time. "Tsk," she said quickly, in reply to his womanizing remark. It was an interesting concept to think of Augustus as a womanizer, but it was, she supposed something she could see from him. She merely hoped that he stuck to women his own age. Although, they were close to the same age, and he certainly conversed regularly with her, so perhaps he did. "I often prefer the smaller festivities when you have celebrations," she continued on his line of thought regarding the Walpurgis festival. "If you get too many people in one area, I find that the general intelligence of the population - wizard and muggle - tends to sink to the lowest level of whomever is attending. If you have one or two idiotic types, it does seem to catch." It was something her mother had told her back in the day and as a young woman Carlotta had determined that it was ridiculous, but as she grew older she knew that actually it was quite true. Whenever she was in a large group of people, the intelligence level seemed to be determined by the most common and least intelligent individuals in attendance. "I am fascinated by the Kneazles," she took a sip of the tea that had arrived a few minutes before, and looked at Augustus curiously. "They call them Wild Cats? I suppose they are rather cat like, although less domestic than your average cat, for certain. At least some of them." She shook her head. "I am beginning to wonder if Gawain is not half cat, actually. He has taken to being remarkably docile, if utterly mad, over the past few months. I do fear that he is beginning to come upon the twilight of his existence on the planet. He is nearly twenty years old, after all, and is the Kneazle I have had the longest." Carlotta sighed. He had been a gift from Victoria and she was going to loathe the day that he actually was no longer around being insane. "Carlotta, dear. I was merely kidding. You have my promise that I am no womanizer." He then rubbed one of his temples a bit and sat back in retreat. "That happens everywhere, the lower intelligence," Augustus included after Carlotta mentioned an idea he completely agreed with. "Take the Ministry for example. You have so much incompetence there as well as probable criminals. I'm sometimes afraid to even go to work, especially walk down an empty hallway." He then sighed, not theatrically, but tiredly, and sat up in his chair. "Anyway...I'm in agreement with what you say. Group think undermines individual intelligence, even if you have a Dumbledore, Waffling or...Pinkstone," he winked, "in the room." Ah, Kneazles. He almost regretted mentioning them, granted how much Carlotta loved talking about them. "There are just wild-cats, lynxes too, but the Muggles mislabel Kneazles from what I've seen." By now, Augustus had known enough about Gawain to write a report; the fact that the cat was elderly did not lighten the mood. For god's sake, this wasn't a wake! "You've got to enjoy your friends and family while you still have them," he remarked slowly, while something close to grief flashed within his eyes. He masked it with a swift sip of tea. No crying. "I wish we had perfected immortality at work – I'd just give you the potion if I had it." He was a sweet gentleman, Carlotta thought, noting his look. "That's very good of you Augustus. But I believe we all have an opportunity to live on the earth and to do something good. When that time is over, then it is time to go on to whatever lies beyond." Carlotta shrugged lightly. She was very practical, whatever others might think, and her feelings on death and life were equally practical. "It is a shame," she laughed lightly, "that those of us who are of higher intelligent aren't able to pull up the group, rather than the group pushing us down. Not to mention that I believe you should include yourself in that group," she smiled. "You do, after all, do quite a bit of work that is quite useful to Wizarding Society, I'm certain!" She took another sip of her tea. It was always pleasant to talk to someone outside of her house. She often spent so many hours in her manor with her Kneazles and her house elves, and although she also spent a lot of time with Squibs and Muggles, working on her projects, and visiting villages, conversation with someone within the Wizarding World, without any actual need to promote an idea or ask for funding, was somewhat rare. "Well everyone is entitled to their own take on the meaning of life, but...I wouldn't mind a few extended terms myself." Augustus perked up at the mention of his work "helping society" and only shook his head in response. "I wish that were the case, Carlotta," he spoke solemnly, his attention centring on his tea, "but my department is far from that. For every ten projects, one might actually have some substantial use. Most of it is dreadfully redundant. I have tried time and time again to tell the department head to get us involved with DMLE efforts. The only time we had an actual major role, was during the giant attack." He sighed, the kind of sigh a man who was disappointed with his life's work might haven given and looked up from the teacup. "I've been working at the department for around thirty years. We're living in a time of war, but my department does nothing important. There are things I work with that could give the Ministry an edge and perhaps turn the tide of a duel. Do we ever help? Do we ever use it to save someone – no. We sit, we do research. I tire of it. My parents were Aurors, Carlotta. While I am a man of much inaction, my mind does sometimes think as a man of action. It all sickens me." He then moved forward and patted Carlotta's hand twice. "At least you make a difference in public, even if it is on a person-to-person basis...such as when you help injured Muggles." Carlotta shrugged, but looked pleased. "I do try," she said. "It's one of the things I feel that I can do. My Mother always taught me to use what I have to help others, and so I do. It's quite satisfying to know you've made a persons life a bit better. And helping Squibs, well, outside of helping someone, it's fascinating to get a look at the Muggle world a bit closer." She looked at him curiously. "I know you can't speak much of the details of your work, Augustus, but I'm certain it isn't as dire as you say. For all the paperwork or projects you might do that seem unimportant, I am certain that at some point they help the Ministry, or provide a bit clearer view into the mystery of Magic." She took a long sip of her tea considering. "I could imagine in your line of work that it might take a very long time indeed for things to work themselves out into a place where they are truly useful. The work you do now, no doubt helps future generations do better." |