Even though it was only mid-morning, Graham still probably should have been out researching a case. His leads had grown cold in the possible hit case, and everything else currently on his plate was fairly mundane. Instead of tracking down informats or leads, he was sitting on the couch going through some of the photographs he’d taken during his extra “creative” phase a week or two ago. He was pretty pleased with most of them and noticed that he’d gone in a different direction than his usual stuff that he took for his personal collection. He tended to set his focus to people, buildings, and lights, but in these photographs there were more landscapes, plants, and scenery that wasn’t made out of brick or concrete. There were even a few of the crazy clouds that had been plaguing Cuaditch.
The pictures were strewn all over the couch and coffee table, but since Adrian wasn’t set to be home for a few more hours, Graham didn’t have any plans of cleaning up anytime soon. He reached across the table to pick up a photo of some of the flowers in one of the parks nearby and took in some of the detailing. Different light and focus were required for different subjects, and he was taking mental notes of how to change things up whenever he got back out there to take more.
He was reaching for his cup of tea when there was a strange pulling sensation that felt oddly familiar. Zapped out of his living room, Graham was transported outside - somewhere, he wasn’t sure exactly where - and tossed inside of a hammock. Or at least that’s what he thought it was.
“I didn’t even pick up the blasted seashell this time!” He exclaimed in exasperation. Why in Merlin’s name did he keep ending up stuck in odd places?
Twisting around, he soon realized he was stuck… and that he was also very much not alone. He soon came face to face with a familiar face. ‘Why, hello there, Charlotte,” he said almost casually. “Come here often?”
She had been sitting on the floor of her lab, looking over some results from her cloud experiments. She was really fond of the tangerine cotton candy she'd managed to make out of those clouds. There were containers all over the place, holding all of the clouds. The scarlet and now current one that was out and about. Forest were not being messed with as much. Passion and envy were not great emotions to mess around with. Charlie was more interested in the passion one, but she still was keeping a lid on it for now.
She was just writing down some notes while holding up the cotton candy tangerine cloud when she felt a strange sensation and found herself laying back, holding up the cloud, making sure it didn't fall. The awkward movement in the hammock of another person and her trying to balance her cloud wasn't exactly smooth.
When she saw Graham's face though she relaxed and huffed. "Honestly you boys! It's Charlie!! It's not Chuck, it's not Charlotte," She said her proper name with a snooty tone. "It's Charlie, just Charlie!!!"
That out of the way, she looked around. "You know I'm always up for some hammock time, but no, this one is new to me, did you cause our hammock meeting?" She asked playfully accusing him.
Graham smirked at the insistence of her name; he had already known calling her most anything other than Charlie would get a reaction. “Okay, okay. Charlie it is - for now at least.” Graham didn’t have a name well-suited for nicknames, so instead he settled for changing up those of his friends’.
“If sitting alone on my couch shuffling through photographs caused hammock time then I guess I’m guilty.” He had no clue what could have caused this. If it was anything like the seashell incident with Kaitlin, he hadn’t touched a hammock or rope; nor had he been thinking Charlie specifically at the time.
He tried sitting up to at least get more comfortable but he couldn’t seem to get untangled. “Oh hell.” He sighed but then raised a brow. “Are you responsible for this meeting?” he asked, pointing a finger at her; as much as he could in the small space.
She tried to reach around to give him a light, friendly smack on his shoulder, but it didn't really work, moving was awkward enough as it was. Giving up she decided to just try and settle into where she was stuck still holding her tangerine cloud candy.
"Racy pictures? Pictures of hammocks?" She asked as if that would be the answer to it. She thought for a moment after he asked if she was responsible. "Don't get me wrong, hanging out in a hammock with you is always on my to-do list, but no, this wasn't me. I was working on this!" She held up her cloud.
"Want some? It's tasty!!"
“Ha, I wish.” Graham shook and laid his head back against the hammock. “No, these were pictures from when I had taken them during my cloud-induced creativity phase.” With his head still laid back, he squinted his eyes to look up and see the fluffy cloud in her hand.
“Tasty?” He questioned. “What’s a cloud taste like anyway? Fluffy water vapor?” Or in the case of the clouds in Cuaditch lately, water vapor with food coloring.
“But, sure, I’ll give it a try.” Graham wasn’t in the habit of turning down food no matter what it was, and he was usually game for trying anything once. He broke off of a piece of the cloud and popped it into his mouth. He let the taste settle in his mouth for a few seconds and then smiled. “Not bad.”
Charlie laughed softly. "Oh yeah? Get any good ones?" She asked. "Were they artful? Or deep? Or something else? Are you going to share them?"
She took a bite of the cloud herself, tasting the citrusy brightness. "I should warn you. You might start to feel a little bit creative after tasting it." She gave a guilty look. "Should’ve warned you ahead of time, right? But hey, at least it's just creative and not angry, or sullen."
She let her head drop back. "So, what was on your to-do list for the day?"
“A few weren’t so bad. Kinda different from my usual stuff, so I was doing some experimenting. I could share them. Maybe. That is, if we ever manage to get out of here before Pucey wonders if we’re ever coming back and decides to toss them.” Graham posted a few pictures of his personal work here and there from time to time, but it wasn’t too often.
“Maybe some creativity will help get us out of here, huh?” He smirked and picked off one more piece of the cloud. Besides, this particular cloud was one of the less awkward ones that she could have brought with her in an already semi-awkward and tight situation.
“I’d planned to do some work this afternoon but nothing that won’t keep until later.” Avoiding work was more like it. “And you? Besides making delicious, edible clouds. Working on anything else new or have a party I don’t know about up your sleeve?”
"You should! You should share more of your work," Charlie encouraged smiling. Charlie shifted a little bit to get a tad more comfortable. It wasn't so bad, or so she thought.
"You never know!" She grinned. "You never know what fantastic idea you might come up with." Charlie nudged him slightly with her elbow.
"Well, that's good, it'd be shit if it were time-sensitive," at his question she shrugged. "I've mostly been in cloudland, I did manage to swirl this one with one of the scarlet ones, now that is fun." she giggled. "But, you know what? I think we do need a party. It's been a bit, hasn't it? But we need a fun theme." She nodded. "And you're helping!"
“If your other cloud ventures in cloudland turn out as delicious as this then you have my full support to keep up with your efforts.” Graham had known for a while about Charlie’s magical experiments and other interests. He’d occasionally ask her if she was working on anything new and interesting, but not often especially since he never brought it up when they were around others.
“A party, huh? A full blown party and not just a handful of us?” He nodded his head back and forth for a moment but then smiled. “Yeah, I’m in.” He wasn’t the party extraordinaire as she was, but he could help with a few things.
“You know, it is July, and the 25th isn’t too far away. We could have ourselves a Christmas in July party.” He paused and raised a brow. “Sorta. I might draw the line at constant Christmas music the entire night.”
Laughing she bounced a little bit. “Well, you’ll just have to be a taste tester!” Charlie worried about people knowing her secret but she didn’t worry about Graham knowing. It was good to have mates that knew how to keep secrets.
She nudged him lightly as he teased her and opened her mouth to say something but when he shared his idea she sat up straight and fell back down with how awkward a hammock could be and clapped. “Yes! We can have themed drinks, set up some mistletoe, oh, a snowball fight area! Some fantastic photo spots…” she let her thoughts drop off as she thought about the logistics. “We need a location.”
Graham drummed his fingers against his chest as he thought over location possibilities. There were their places, but if they wanted to do a more general and inclusive party this time around then neither would work. “There’s always the Squealing Snitch. Preece would probably jump on it. Or, depending on what you had in mind, something outdoors could be fun, especially since it’s warm. There are a few parks in town that could work.”
The options to include at the party were endless, too. From food and drinks to putting on Christmas hats and garb.. “The photo booth at the town event a while back was popular. A Christmasy-themed one of those could be a lot of fun.”
“A park would be best, oh! Isn’t there that new bar opening up by waterfront park? That could be perfect! We’d have the location, the view of the water, take over the park too and have snowball fights and loads of other things, like you said, the photobooth.” Charlie nodded her head as she kept thinking.
“And, I bet, well, I know I can get sponsors and who doesn’t want a bit of a celebration in July?” She grinned. “Graham Montague, you’ve been keeping a secret from me!”
“Yep, I think I heard something about that bar; I like that. Options for being inside or out. I think you’ve figured out our location.” The more he thought about it, Christmas in July sounded like a lot of fun, and he was looking forward to brainstorming and getting more plans set once they got out of this thing.
Raising a brow, he smiled a little. “Have I?” He asked. “Secrets, me? Nooo, never.” Not exactly true by any means, but he was curious to what she might have been referring to here. “What secret might that be?”
“When we get out of here, we’ll have to go check it out,” she decided with a firm nod, or she could go alone if he had to work. She was flexible.
Laughing at his expression she raised an eyebrow giving him a skeptical look. “Oh, you have secrets.” She insisted light heartedly. “But in this case, your party planning skills.” She of course knew a little bit about them but usually it’d been more a group thing, not just the two of them deciding to go for it together.
“I’m never opposed to checking out a new bar, so yeah. I’m in.” Checking out a possible party location plus a chance to test out the drinks in advance? Oh yeah. Sign him up.
Graham always had secrets, secrets were like life’s little spurts of excitement one way or another, but he laughed at the one she’d tagged him with this time. “Ha, no. Not a party planner here.” He could throw something informal with his mates easy enough, but this was a horse of a whole different color. “I’m your idea man, but planner might be pushing it a little.” He tapped the side of his head. “But ideas? I got ‘em.”
“Half the planning is having the ideas, besides, you are checking out the bar with me, that does all under ‘party planning’ and everything it entails.” She added firmly with a bright smile. Hey, she’d always take good company no matter what was happening.
“And, before you know it, you might be a pro at all the little details,” she had a feeling he’d be better at it than he was giving himself credit for but she didn’t say that part. “But first, as much as I love a good hammock time, we need to get out of her to go see the bar to start with.”
“I guess we’ll have to wait and see how I do,” he said with a grin. Life as a party planner would never be in his future, but he could certainly test out locations and follow instructions as he was told. She was right though, they did need to find a way out of the hammock - even if it wasn’t the worst or strangest thing to have happened in this town. Still better than being stuck in a seashell even if he’d had good company at the time. “Maybe if we try apparating at the same time? Or an unbinding spell at the same time?”
“I have faith in you,” Charlie grinned turning her attention to the problem at hand. “I’d say unbinding first. If we try apperating and we’re stuck we might have some well, interesting outcomes with that.” She said shivering slightly at the thought. “So unbinding first.” She nodded looking over at him. “On the count of three… One, two, three!”
They both said the spell together on three and while normally the spell took effect quickly, at first not much happened. Graham was about to huff out a sigh but then slowly the hammock began unwinding and untangling. Whatever magic involved in starting up this thing sure was causing the spell to take its sweet time. Or so it seemed.
The right piece of the hammock must have untangled because soon Graham slips out and onto the ground with an oof. He sat up and rubbed his back a little but laughed. “Now, see, that wasn’t so hard was it? Go team us.”
Laughing as she watched Graham get it out, she felt herself a little bit off balance falling out herself. Standing up, she grinned.
"We make a good team Graham Montague." She said, kissing his cheek and clapping her hands. "And we have work to do!"