WHO: Eddie Carmichael and Caroline Dufort-Podmore WHAT: A dementor gatecrashes a book promotion WHEN: Today WHERE: Obscurus Books, Diagon Alley WARNINGS: Mild creeps
“But is the Lethifold’s name actually Flappy?” one wizard was querying the young man at the entryway of the shop. “And did he acquire it before he ventured towards the tropics, or afterwards?”
(As only those well-versed in the knowledge of magical creatures knew, Lethifolds could only be found in the tropics. And by Rowena’s kirtle and slippers, he was going to catch this charlatan out…)
Eddie Carmichael's customer service smile didn't waver. "You'll just have to read the book and find out!" he said, offering a hardcover copy of I've Got This Covered to the skeptic in front of him.
In-store promotions were tedious, but Eddie was good at them. He didn't have to read the book in question in order to convince someone else to buy it, and he was sure Marlowe Swathe, one-hit author wonder, would appreciate the bump. Obscurus Books wasn't about to promote something about fighting off dementors, of course, but the Patronus lesson in a book about lethifolds would still be there for those reading between the lines.
The dissatisfied customer did not look appeased. “Well, I never! It appears that you haven’t read the book at all! This Swathe is peddling us sheer humbuggery, or my name is not Foghorn Dewhurst…”
A yard or so away from him, two elderly witches huddled together at the slight chill in the air.
"Sir, I'd be happy to --" Eddie stopped when the chill hit him, the feeling that things were bad and only getting worse, familiar from the year they spent just outside school grounds. And there, just outside the shop windows, was its cause.
People started to scream and Eddie refused to panic. He'd gotten a silver mist from his lessons with Cho, and there was nothing like trial by fire, right?
The Dementor hovered as customers scurried to the back of the store (but for a few brave others whose Patronus attempts were just as weak as Eddie's own disappointing effort, interspersed by Foghorn Dewhurst crying out “ALLOW ME, FOLKS!” then fleeing down a side street). And then, that doubt began to swirl, and Eddie wanted nothing more than to run -- but there was nowhere to go. The dementor’s rattle grew louder, and louder. A skeletal hand snaked forwards—
And then it was plucked up into the air, its tattered robes brushing over the cobblestones as a shining heron grasped it with its talons, soaring over the tiled rooftops that hemmed in the street and flinging it away into the ether.
Caroline Dufort-Podmore tracked the movement of her patronus. “You-” she gestured to a younger couple, more able-bodied and seemingly less affected than others nearby “-take everyone to that chocolate shop. See if Rosier’s as generous as he claims to be.”
Eddie let out a low, ragged breath. The people around him continued to swirl and dash in different directions, but he stayed very still, nearly shaken by what was far too close a call. Later, he would reflect that his wide-eyed, deerlike tendency to freeze at the sight of danger would probably hurt him someday, but for today, his luck held out.
Several people followed the young couple over to the new chocolate shop. The path cleared between him and the woman who had produced the Patronus that saved them -- that saved him.
Eddie put back on his mask of confidence with a charming smile. The misery of the encounter settled deep in his chest, but that wouldn't stop Eddie. Instead of following the crowd, he approached the woman. "Thank you," he said, offering a handshake with his words.
“No need,” replied Caroline, but received the handshake with a firm grasp of her own. She had noticed how quickly the teenager’s smile had slipped back into place, something that earned the slightest tinge of respect from herself, but still recognised the mask for what it was.
“I’m Caroline Dufort-Podmore,” she added. “And you are?” The query was brisk enough, but without the edge to make it resemble a threat.
"Eddie Carmichael, Obscurus Books," he said officially. He knew how young he looked, so anything he could do to come across as professionally as possible, he did. He even joked, "You know, I think your demonstration might even help me sell a few of these today!" He waved the copy of I've Got This Covered he almost forgot he was holding in his left hand.
“Perhaps you were the person I spoke to about it, over the network.” Caroline was ninety percent certain that’s who he was, but feigned some degree of guesswork. Strangers could sometimes be alarmed with how accurately she recalled names, faces. Incidents. The cheerful salesman was the mask he had picked, so she went along with it. “How much is that?” she asked, reaching a hand inside her coat pocket for her purse.
Eddie glanced to either side as if keeping a secret between them, though no one there would have cared. Then, conspiratorially, "For you, after that Patronus? It's free." He offered her the book. "I'd rather be shy a few sickels than shy a soul."
“A smart bargain.” Her mouth twitched in something approaching amusement as she tucked the book into the folds of her coat, a slight bob of her head in thanks. “Also, if you are free tomorrow evening, there’s Patronus lessons at this address.” She pressed a card into his hand, then touched her finger to the side of her nose in an universal ‘mum’s the word’ gesture. A slight risk, but then Knockturnals (as she had marked him) understood the value in keeping a secret.
Eddie pocketed the card without a glance, but gave the smallest nod of acknowledgement. "Well," he said, "I should probably get back to it. They'll all drift back in a bit, and I've got a book about Patronuses to promote. Thank you again, Mrs Dufort-Podmore."
“Bon courage,” she added, then adjusted her collar, glancing lengthwise down the street. The dementors may well be back, but they would find her here. In the meantime, she would go along to Rosier’s and see how the rest of the pack was faring. And if one Mister Foghorn Dewhurst had learned the folly of claiming expertise in an area in which he had none.