Lily Evans Potter (chosemyway) wrote in madisonvalley, @ 2017-02-01 13:42:00 |
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Entry tags: | !closed, !completed gdoc, !log, ~2017 february, ~25 points, ~~lily evans potter (chosemyway), ~~~presto (callmepresto) |
Who: Preso and Lily Evans Potter
What: Random meeting
Where: Coffee shop
When: Wednesday afternoon
Warnings: Nah
Status: complete gdoc
When Presto met Lily, it was a normal day, really. When the sun was shining and the moon was high, despite that, and it seemed like there were way too many assignments from school, sometimes Presto fled his usual study place and occupied the local coffee shop.
Hiding out there, claiming one corner as his own, he sat with books, papers, danishes, and coffee. He needed the coffee to survive school sometimes, he swore. He could face down orcs, run from Dragons with only a curse, and even face dark wizards, but classes? Those were just too much some days.
So he had found his way to the coffee shop, and he was there, just wanting to be left alone, or at least in peace. He wouldn’t mind friends, but sometimes the world was way too loud. He had managed to settle in during a very slow period. For no real reason he could tell, there were only two other customers at the moment, and the staff was resting, not really paying attention to much. And so it was relatively safe for him to use his magic to turn pages and shift his coffee cup around, even as he tried to understand rather odd English questions.
***
Lily normally preferred to patronize the tea shop, but for some reason, she was really craving a hot chocolate today, so she decided to pop into the coffee shop since it didn’t look crowded. While she was waiting for the barista to prepare her drink, she looked around at the few patrons in the shop, her eyes falling on a young man who was turning the pages in his book using magic. That was interesting.
When her drink was ready, she checked the time and decided that James could mind Harry a bit longer while she satisfied her curiosity. She walked over to the boy’s table and smiled. “Mind if I join you?”
***
Presto looked up, then smiled. “Not at all. Good morning, miss.” He paused, for she looked sort of familiar. Glancing around, his voice lowered as he wiggled his fingers, using a mage hand to move the chair back for her, and arrange a space on the sometimes crowded surface of the table. “Are you on the network?”
***
“Yes, I do use the network from time to time,” Lily said. It was a fascinating thing, so much more efficient than sending owls or fireplaces to communicate. “I’m Lily Potter. Been here in town for just about two years now.”
She was one of the people who was much happier here than at home and would stay if given the opportunity.
***
“I’ve been here for just a few months, Nice to meet you.”
He extended a hand and smiled. “I was stuck elsewhere for years, and am playing catchup here, and much happier here than back home. Are you enjoying it here, too?”
***
Lily shifted her drink to her left hand so she could shake his. “Oh, yes, I quite like it here,” she said. “My husband and I are able to raise our son here. Back home, we’ve learned that we will die in the war we’re currently fighting and he will be raised by family.” Not that she really considered Petunia family at this point, but she wasn’t getting into that.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t catch your name.”
***
Presto smiled as he shook her hand. “Good.” He nodded, listening, then winced at her story. “Oh, that would do it, yeah. I’m pretty sure I’ll never go home, if I get sent back. I’ll probably die eventually far from home.” Which was depressing.
“Oh, sorry! I’m Presto. Nice to meet you, ma’am.” He grinned and shifted, and knocked over his mug, sending coffee everywhere, but a bit of exertion of will, and prestidigitation swept the coffee out of the air and back into his mug.
“Sorry. Things seem to be a little splashy around me.”
***
“I am sorry to hear that,” Lily said. It wasn’t easy knowing your future, or even suspecting it. She was going to ask more about why he thought that and insist that he call her Lily, not ma’am, because that made her feel old, but then he knocked the mug over and she was immediately reaching for her wand to try and mitigate the damage when he surprised her by doing his own magic.
She chuckled. “That’s a handy trick,” she said “I noticed you flipping the pages of your book with magic as well.”
***
Presto shook his head. “I try not to think about it. Getting sent back there is something I want no part of.” He shuddered.
He grinned at her compliment. “Rary’s Mage Hand is one of my favorite spells. It’s easy to learn and burn as a cantrip, and I can do anything simple that a hand can do, faster, and with greater, or more delicate, strength.” He nodded. “I had a heck of a time learning it to start, though.”
***
Some magic could be difficult to learn. Lily knew that from experience. “Practice makes perfect,” she said. “Did you go to a school for magic? I attended Hogwart’s School of Wizardry and Witchcraft.”
***
“I didn’t. I had to learn on the run, literally. I was abducted at age 13 and a half into a Realm of Magic and monsters, along with three friends. I was there for about four and a half years, before Madison Valley brought me here.”
He reached into his shirt pocket and pulled out a book, which, of course, in no way could fit in a pocket the apparent size of his. Not without an expansion spell, that was. He opened the tome and showed it to her. It contained quite a few well-copied spells, with instructions, ingredients needed, and so on, with marks in the sides and around them, and in the latter pages, more spells that had been created, or discovered, by Presto himself, in a very clear, very distinct hand.
“I found several spellbooks along the way and started studying. By practice, and by necessity, I learned.”
He leaned forward. “What was this Hogwarts like?”
***
Lily’s eyes got wide when he explained how he learned magic. That sounded terribly difficult and he was very lucky to have survived it for so long. In her world, Muggles who got caught in the crossfire of the Wizarding world tended not to come to very good ends. She was grateful that she’d received her Hogwarts letter and been taught to properly wield her magic.
“It was brilliant,” she said, eyes shining as she discussed her school. “We learned charms and potions and how to care for magical creatures among other things.”
His spell book didn’t look anything like the ones they used, but it was very obvious that it was a spell book even though the formation of spells was quite different. “This is fascinating. You’re lucky to have it with you.” She had often wished for several of her school books.
***
“That sounds fantastic! I wish I’d had a chance to learn magic like that!” He grinned at her, nodding. “It would have made communicating with Uni a lot easier.”
He chuckled, then smiled. “I am, but as a battle wizard, without a home, I pretty much carried everything with me in bags of holding. Now, I carry those bags inside whatever pockets I’m wearing.”
The bags were more like pouches, really, but inside they could carry a heck of a lot more than they looked like they could on the outside.
***
“Those sound like a fascinating bit of magic,” Lily said. It wasn’t difficult to imagine what he meant by a bag of holding and she thought it sounded brilliant. Perhaps she would have to figure out how to spell a bag like that for when she did her shopping. “We ought to compare spells sometime.”
Sometime when they weren’t in public. Even though a lot of people around here were used to magic and okay with it, plenty weren’t and she wasn’t comfortable casting spells so openly if she didn’t have to.
***
“Someone invented it a long time ago in the Realm. I learned how to make it and only flubbed it about six times. Not exactly my proudest moment, but a nice thing to have, once you get it right.” Hey, dimensional magic is hard, yo.
“I’d love to! Learning more about magic is something I’ve become quite eager about. A hang-over from when more magic meant more safety for me and my friends.”
***
Lily smiled. “Brilliant! I enjoy learning about magic from different worlds. It’s an opportunity that I wouldn’t have at home, obviously.” Because the only magic that existed in her world was the kind she and her friends all practiced.
Her drink was nearly gone and she realized that she probably ought to head home soon. James would be wondering where she was. “I should leave you to your reading.”
***
Presto nodded. “Okay.” he rose to extend a hand to shake hers, then smiled. “We should definitely meet again to talk about magic. I hope you have a very good day!”
He had a lot to study, and he hoped the day would go by fast.
***
“I would like that,” Lily said. “And I hope you have a good day as well.” She picked up her drink and finished it off, tossing the paper cup in the trash on her way out the door.