Lari and her muses (sira_ne_biber) wrote in magic_oasis, @ 2008-12-25 23:43:00 |
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Current mood: | amused |
Current music: | Sleigh Ride ~ Spice Girls ;) |
Entry tags: | alicia spinnet, log, sylvie fawcett |
The Search for Umbert Umbridge/ magic_days verse
Merry Christmas, magic_oasis! In the spirit of the season, I finished up a log kat_bus and I started long ago and should be a throwback to our magic_days days.
Enjoy!
Who: Sylvie Fawcett and Alicia Spinnet
Where: Aberdeen, Scotland
When: Summer (June?) 1996
Why: Idea from here - technically AU since this didn't happen in game.
Sylvie Fawcett knew she was going to be in big trouble when her parents finally caught up with her, since they were unreasonable and didn't want her leaving the house and wanted her to be content just to bicker with Annette all day long. Which is why she'd Flooed to Alicia's house for their next Great Adventure. Sure, Annette could tattle and Maman could track where she'd gone, but she and Alicia weren't at the house very long, having Flooed again to Aberdeen to follow up a lead.
Alicia had told her to wait until after OWLs, and by after about, oh, one day at home, Sylvie was already researching Umbridges in the UK. She'd managed to find a Floo listing for one in Aberdeen, although without a first name, she couldn't be sure if it would be the Umbitch one, or her fabled brother Umbert.
"Wouldn't it be the craziest thing if Nora O'Malley was actually right about something for once?" Sylvie said as the two made their way down the street.
"I'm not sure anyone would believe us if we said it's true," Alicia mused, laughing both at the idea of O'Malley telling the truth and simply from the joy of doing something crazy with good company. "Do you have a camera or something? We'll have to get pictures with the infamous Umbert, of course."
If it wasn't evident in Alicia's voice, her grin showed that she didn't expect to find Umbert Umbridge in Aberdeen or anywhere. But that wasn't about to stop her from enjoying this excursion. Life didn't always need a purpose to be fun. The only way this could end badly was if the girls ended up accidentally stalking their, ahem, favorite Defence professor -- but even then, it wasn't as if she could use that quill on them during the summer.
Wasn't said DADA professor still at Mungo's anyway? Not that Sylvie was really keeping track.
"I do!" Sylvie said, "It's in my purse. You know, I'll be right disappointed if he doesn't have the rabbit ears and tail like O'Malley said."
Sylvie had brought along the article, of course. While she didn't expect O'Malley to be right about all of it (or even any of it), it was decidedly helpful to have a copy of her version of events around, just to keep them all straight. Nora O'Malley was so bizarre.
"Of course, if someone actually does live in this house that's not our own Umbitch, I would have to feel sorry for them sharing such an unfortunate surname."
The directions she'd got on Wizard Maps had said to make a right and start heading out of the city and so she did.
"Well, it has been a while," Alicia said bracingly, "and he may have had them amputated by now." She thought back to that fateful article in the Hogwarts Herald. "Personally, I'm hoping if we find Umbert we'll also run across... what was her name, Mandy or something? The third one in the love triangle." Of course, the thought of Umbridge being in any sort of love shape was completely laughable.
"You know, this isn't half bad," the older girl admitted as they headed out of the city. "Perhaps I should take some time off work to travel a bit. Find other obscure people who may or may not exist to search for."
"Mindy," Sylvie supplied, although she only knew that since she'd reread the article that morning before leaving, "Although if he's living here, he's obviously not in a vampire commune anymore, either. Poor Umbert, probably just trying to move on and normalise his life to be disturbed by two incredibly cool girls."
Making a left turn at Merlin way, it was easy to see the two had completely left Muggle Aberdeen for the wizarding section. One, because all the Muggles they'd passed had walked by this street as if it didn't even exist, and two, because the houses were decorated so much more interestingly here.
"Who else would you look for?" Sylvie asked, enjoying this simply for the fact that she was vaguely travelling (or visiting someplace she'd never been before) and was out of her parents' house.
"Well, I'd say we're a good sight better company than vampires, yeah?" Alicia chuckled. "Umbert ought to be quite pleased that we care enough to pay him a visit. And hey, maybe I'll look for Mindy next."
She toward the directions in Sylvie's hand and asked, "Is it on Merlin Way or do we have to make another turn? Oh, but don't look at the address, let's make a guessing game out of it! If we run across a house that's a ghastly shade of pink we'll know we've found the one and only Umbitch. What do you reckon Umbert's house would look like?"
"Mindy would be a difficult one unless Umbert could tell us about her. I mean, really, a Muggle with an unknown last name?"
Sylvie pointed to the cross section of Merlin Way and Kelpie Lane. "I remember it being on Kelpie, but we can walk up and down it to see if any jump out at us, yes? I feel like Umbert would have the most boring house possible so to draw very little attention to himself."
The houses on Kelpie Lane were...eccentric, for lack of a better word. Most were painted in clashing colours, other completely covered in Quidditch paraphernalia and still others sideways or upside down.
"This seems like the type of place O'Malley or Lovegood would want to live in," she said.
"Right, good luck finding a boring house here," Alicia remarked as they turned onto Kelpie Lane. At least there were no sickly pink houses, or at least none that Alicia could spot. Loads of houses in other disgusting shades, though. Why anybody would want to live in a mustard yellow house with electric blue trim was beyond her.
Alicia came to a halt in front of a blue and green plaid house. "Betcha three sickles it's this one. The boring print just screams Umbert."
"You're on," Sylvie said with a grin, going up the walkway and pulling on the ropes that held the doorbell.
A very, very hairy redheaded Scottish man answered the door wearing nothing but a kilt. Eugh. Sylvie liked half naked men as much as the next, but he wasn't very attractive. And rather old. Still, Sylvie gave him her best charming grin.
"And what'dye want, lass?" he grumbled.
"We're looking for Umbert Umbridge," Sylvie replied, "Are you him?"
The man's face turned quite red, "I'm certainly not the bloody bastard but if ye ever find him remind me that he owes me fifty galleons off our last game of poker." And with that, he slammed the door.
"That'll be three sickles, please," Sylvie said, walking back to Alicia and the sidewalk, "What about that one down there? The log cabin one?"
Alicia pulled three silver coins out of her pocket and handed them over to her friend. "Now don't spend it all in one place, you hear?" she teased, knowing full well that the money was most likely going toward birth control potions or alcohol, both of which Alicia considered worthwhile investments.
"That house on the corner?" she asked for confirmation as she started down the street. "And are you putting any money on it, Fawcett?"
Sylvie pocketed the change and pulled out what she had, "I'll offer you two knuts if that's not his place." All right, so maybe Alicia would be getting the worse end of the deal, but she also had a job and Sylvie didn't, which made it fair in her mind.
"And yes, that one on the corner. Is that patched up with mud? Eugh, talk about roughing it!" she exclaimed as they walked down to the corner, although she knew that a wizarding house was likely to look much better on the inside than it did the outside.
"Either mud or dung, and I really do hope it's the former." Alicia walked up to the house and knocked three times on the heavy wooden door. She didn't pay much attention to the man who opened it and instead looked beyond him. She was relieved to find that the house looked much, well, cleaner on the inside than on the outside.
"Hello good sir!" she said brightly, "Would you happen to be Mr. Umbert Umbridge?"
"Well, who's asking?" the man shot back, "Ye aren't trying to sell me something, are ye?"
Alicia grinned and assured him, "It's nothing of the sort! My friend here and I were just wondering, if you are Umbert Umbridge, if you happened to be the brother of our dear professor Dolores Umbridge. It really is a shame what happened to her, you know... such an unfortunate accident..."
Sylvie couldn't help but snort, which she tried to turn into a cough. "Oh yes, unfortunate that," she managed to choke out, "Hogwarts will never be the same, I can tell you that."
"I've nary a sister - only two brothers," he said, "But I think I might have a third cousin once removed or something by the name of Dolores."
"So you're to tell us this isn't true?" Sylvie asked, holding out O'Malley's article to the man.
Alicia watched his face closely for his reaction, and to her surprise he burst out laughing.
"I'll tell ye lasses: I am Umbert Umbridge. And do ye see a bunny nose and whiskers?" He grinned at the girls.
"I see nothing of the sort," Alicia replied, "and seeing as you aren't Professor Umbridge's brother, I suppose this whole thing about Mindy is tripe. Which may explain why O'Malley wasn't expelled for writing it..."
"You could be very good at disillusionment charms," Sylvie teased, pleased that she was getting to keep her knuts and that their trip was turning into a success - with the trouble she'd be surely getting from Maman and Dad, it would have been disappointing to fail.
"Well, ye'll never know if I am, now will ye?" he grinned, looking over the article again, "I must say I feel mighty important to have this Nora O'Malley writin' such stories about me. D'ye mind if I make a copy of it?"
"Not at all!" Sylvie said, "And she writes stuff like that about everyone. She's not quite right in the head."
Alicia turned to Sylvie as soon as Umbert retreated inside to copy the article. "Looks like I owe you two knuts. Mind if I pay up after we Floo back?" She turned out the now empty pockets of her robes and made a face.
"Glad we found him, though. Even if he's not really our beloved High Inquisitor's brother, I think we can still consider this trip a success, yeah?"
"Definitely!" Sylvie replied, pulling her camera out of her purse, "All we need is our photographic evidence and we're good to go!"
Said evidence was collected easily once Umbert returned with the original copy, and the two girls headed on their way, determined to explore a bit more before heading back to the world of rules and parents.