InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "Who let the dogs out?!"

westhamwizard (westhamwizard) wrote in silverage,
@ 2011-08-12 10:49:00

Entry tags:

!log, dean thomas, lily evans

Who: Dean Thomas + OTA
When: Friday morning in Novemer; Friday morning in August
Where: South East England; Upper West Side
What: Dean's entrance
Rating/status: TBD

The morning dawned grey and cold on the little village of Peasmarsh, East Sussex. Mist curled it's icy fingers around the lampposts which lined the street. Trees and lawns glittered with last night's frost.

Dean walked out of the corner shop, sticking his wand back into his pocket. He had felt bad using a Confundus charm on the shopkeeper, but he was running out of money, both wizard and muggle. Unwrapping his newly purchased Mars bar and sticking it in his mouth, he unfolded his newspaper. Nothing obvious on the front page to say whether You Know Who had attacked any muggles, so Dean turned to the sports section to check the football scores. West Ham was playing well this year, and reading the winning scores was one of the only good things in Dean’s life lately. Satisfied, Dean tossed the paper and the candy wrapper in the nearest bin, then turned on his heel and apparated, meaning to land on a secluded riverbank a few miles west.

Imagine his surprise, then, when he stopped spinning and found himself staring not at a calm and peaceful stream, but instead at the side of a bus displaying an advert for Marlboro Cigarettes. An old woman nearby barked at him for making a racket, but no one else seemed to say anything about him appearing out of thin air. Wherever he was, he reckoned it was much farther North than he'd meant to go, judging from all the snow on the ground. He sat down on the bus stop bench, trying to get his bearings. A man next to him had his head buried in an unfamiliar newspaper (whose pictures weren't moving, giving Dean at least one clue where he might be). The front page story was about the sudden blizzard which had covered the city in snow and ice. Just then, the man noticed Dean and said, "It's awful, isn't it, all this snow in August? Ain't Natural."

Dean, confused, barely knew how to respond. "August? What do you mean August?"

The man closed his paper and tapped the date on the front cover. Dean took it from him to get a closer look. Sure enough, it read "August 12th, 1964 New York City"

"What!?" Dean gasped, his voice rising in pitch. He stood from the bench and took off at a run, not knowing where exactly he was going, fight or flight response kicking in.

The man called after him, "Hey, that's my paper!" but it was no use, Dean was already half a block away and showed no signs of slowing down.

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westhamwizard
2011-08-14 03:14 am UTC (link)

Hang on, did she just say...? "Apparating?" He leaned in closer, lowering his voice to a whisper. "So you're a witch, then. Was it something magical, that brought me here? Was it... was it You Know Who?" Dean didn't know if ~~Voldemort~~ You Know Who had the kind of magic to pull off this kind of trick, or if such magic even existed, but it made about as much sense as any theory, and more than many others that raced through his brain.

"How is Neville here? Neville's at school, he's pureblood." And Dean thought maybe he'd been off when he guessed Lily's age, if she said Neville was older than her. "Hold on, son? Harry can't be your son, you're not nearly old enough!"

Then he finally registered what she'd meant when she said she was displaced fourteen years and he nearly sat back down in the snowbank out of shock. "You really are... You're Harry's mum. Oh my God..."

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just_lily
2011-08-14 03:25 am UTC (link)

"I am a witch," Lily agreed, glad to be able to say that. She could admit it so rarely, in this Muggle-dominated city. "It wasn't ... anything from our world that did it. We don't think, anyway. It ..." She shook her head. "No one knows, not really. But there are people from all sorts of times here. Even the distant future. It's nothing to do with him," Lily hurried to assure him.

Lily licked her lips as she tried to work out the bit about Neville being pureblood and why it would matter. She hadn't asked for all the details of the second war, and she had only the vaguest idea of what happened during it. "Neville's ..." She hesitated. "Twenty seven, I think he said. The Herbology professor at Hogwarts." She paused a beat, then frowned. "I'm sorry. This must be horrible information overload and here we are standing in the cold. Would you like me to take you to the center? It'll be warmer there and they'll set you up with a room and food and some more appropriate clothing for this weather."

She smiled a little at his realization. "I know already. What ... what happens to me. If you had any inclination to try to skirt the issue." Neville had, during their conversation, and she imagined no one really liked being the one to tell someone when and how they'd died. "I'm not his mum yet. I'm not even married yet, but ... Sirius is here, and Remus, and they told me about Harry, and of course Neville told me some stories about him." Lily tilted her head to indicate she was ready to escort him if he was inclined. "If you'd rather stop for something to eat first, before you're shoved into the whole welcoming process, we could do that, too."

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westhamwizard
2011-08-15 04:20 pm UTC (link)

Dean could barely hold back a chuckle. "He would be Herbology prof. Sprout always fancied him, even more than students in her own house." And Lily was right about the cold. His trainers were soaked through with slush, not to mention the seat of his pants. "Yeah, I think this center might be a good idea." He made a gesture for her to lead on.

As he listened to her explain that she already knew her outcome, he nodded on in silence. What else could you say when someone tells you they know how and when they're gonna die? She went on to mention Sirius... Sirius Black? Dean fought down a shudder. Black's name had been cleared a year ago, but when you spend three years hearing about someone as a murderous criminal it's hard to do a 360 that quick. Still, he was Harry's godfather, wasn't he? And then Remus, wasn't that Professor Lupin's first name? Dean smiled, looking forward to seeing his favorite teacher. If Neville and Lupin were here too, it couldn't be all bad. Lupin was smart, he'd figure a way out of this.

Then Lily mentioned food, and Dean's stomach, as though it had ears of its own and had been listening in, gave out a deep rumble. Dean couldn't remember the last time he'd had a proper meal. "Yeah," he laughed, "eating might be good. I'm starved."

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just_lily
2011-08-15 07:09 pm UTC (link)

Since he hadn't given a preference on where he was inclined to eat, Lily decided probably best to start with the cafeteria in the welcome center. "Come on then," she said as she retreated to pick up her bags before she started along the way to get back to the center. Besides that, they might have something else for him to change into. Though she guessed one of them could do a drying charm or a warming charm -- or both -- so he could at least be dry while he ate.

"It's a bit of a walk," she admitted. "Or we could take a bus, but no promise we'd wind up in the right place. I haven't committed all the schedules to memory yet." She knew a few, yes, but today had been an exercise in adventure.

Emerald eyes shifted to him, a smile on her lips as she led him along. "You're taking this all well," she observed. "Still in shock or just that adept at adapting?"

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westhamwizard
2011-08-16 01:19 am UTC (link)

Dean reached out a hand as an offer to carry Lily's bags for her. It was really the least he could do. "Please, Mrs. ...Harry's mum..." Dean flinched inside. He always had a hard time knowing what to call people's parents. It was even worse when the parent in question wasn't even a parent yet. "...Lily, sorry."

He looked cautiously at his surroundings, more a force of habit than anything, but everyone around them was going about their business. "And I don't mind walking, if you're sure it's safe."

He looked down to meet her gaze and smiled in return. "After the past few months I've had, believe me, it's almost a relief to find myself miles away."

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just_lily
2011-08-16 01:28 am UTC (link)

Lily was more amused than she probably should have been by his stumbling through what to call her. "Lily's fine," she assured him softly, surrendering one of the two bags she was carrying. She appreciated the assistance but the bags were fairly light.

"It's safe enough in the day," she said before she bit lightly at her lower lip. "Be a bit more careful after dark though. There's ... apparently the crime rates about here have spiked since this ... whole anomaly of people being drawn in started. Our sort can likely handle it, but why risk it if we don't have to?" She offered him a little smile. "I can't speak personally from experience, but people have mentioned, so ... this is me passing it along."

She regarded him for a moment after his last statement. She'd heard a few things from Neville, but she hadn't been in a mental place to pry too deeply. "What ..." She hesitated. "If you don't mind talking about it, once we've found somewhere warm to settle down. The war, I mean. I ... well, we were in the first war, of course, but I'm from earlier on in all that. Before it got really bad, apparently. Then I hear after all that, he still comes back and I ... the details are a touch fuzzy and I didn't want to push too much for information before."

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westhamwizard
2011-08-16 11:23 am UTC (link)

Dean smiled at Lily's warnings to stay off the streets at night. "Hey, I'm from London. A little crime is nothing. Just so long as they're not Death Eaters." A part of him hesitated. What if some Death Eaters got pulled into the city too? Lily didn't seem too worried, though, so Dean assumed none had (yet).

"I can tell you about parts of it. Anything that's been happening recently, though, I couldn't tell you about. I've been on the run since August, ever since Snape became Headmaster an' made it a rule that no muggle-borns are allowed at Hogwarts. Y'see, my dad left when I was born, but we've got no idea whether he was a wizard or not," Dean explained, "and without any proof to show the Ministry, well they'd throw me in Azkaban."

Dean stopped talking there. He didn't want to get into the full story while they were still out in public. Plus, he figured it was a lot for Lily to process. Hadn't Harry once said his mum was muggle-born? "Anyway," he went on, "the rest can probably wait 'til we get to this center or whatever."

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just_lily
2011-08-16 01:40 pm UTC (link)

"Remus thinks there might have been some, but I haven't seen any." Well, aside from Severus, but she could never quite make him count as a Death Eater in her mind. Perhaps it was only because they'd been friends and she refused to believe it completely, despite knowing what she did.

His next statement just confused her. Her lips parted as she tried to drum up some sort of protest, because he would never do that, ever, but what did she know about the man he grew into? Still, it made her sad in a way she couldn't really define, because once upon a time, a younger Severus had told her blood didn't matter. Lily wrapped her free arm around her middle and she wondered if she'd ever bring that up to him, or if she'd just forever wonder. It wasn't as though Severus would know, now, about things that happened years into his future, and he could protest all he wanted but why would Dean lie about something like that?

Lost in thought, she barely managed an acknowledging 'of course' to his statement. Maybe she didn't really want to know anything about the war after all. So instead she continued to walk, losing herself in the sounds of their breathing and their shoes against the pavement as she tried so very hard not to speculate how Severus wound up as headmaster, banning Muggle-borns from school.

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westhamwizard
2011-08-16 04:26 pm UTC (link)

Something about what Dean said had clearly upset Lily, but he wasn't sure what exactly it was. He hadn't even mentioned some of the worse stuff like Dumbledore or Cedric. Not that Lily would've known Cedric, hell Dean himself barely knew him being two years below him and in a different house and all. Still, she would've known Dumbledore. He'd been Headmaster at Hogwarts for ages, based on what Dean heard at his funeral last term. Dean decided to hold off on any of the more shocking news until Lily made it clear she was ready to hear more.

"So..." he began, wanting to change the subject. "This center of yours, much farther is it?"

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just_lily
2011-08-17 12:33 am UTC (link)

"Not much farther," she said quietly. She appreciated the subject change, and she offered him a little smile as they walked along. "You'll only have a month to get things together," she explained. "Get a job, get your own place, things like that. They're helpful though, lining up work for people who ... well, people like us. Displaced, with no real marketable skills in this time and place." She'd gotten lucky, she knew. She'd caught Don's attention -- for whatever reason -- and that was how she'd wound up at Sterling-Cooper. The work was simple enough and she was more or less holding her own there. Well, when she was there, and she reasoned she likely should have tried to go in today, but ... well, here she was instead.

"It's nice enough, plenty of people there to make friends with and they have a cafeteria for meals, so you at least won't have to spend any money on food. If you have ... ah. If you have any Muggle money, they can convert it at the bank, and there are places around to sell the wizarding money," Lily continued. It was better to talk about things here, the future, instead of wondering about the status of her world.

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westhamwizard
2011-08-17 11:38 am UTC (link)

Dean liked that this Welcome Center sounded so helpful, but the one month deadline worried him. "We're in 1960's America, right? Who's going to hire an underage black kid from London?" Still, he reckoned he was probably better off in the 'marketable skills' department than some of his pureblood counterparts. He imagined Draco Malfoy trying to find a muggle job and snickered a little bit. It would serve him right, ending up unemployed and homeless on the streets of the biggest muggle city around.

The thought occurred to Dean that this might be the perfect opportunity to pursue a career in illustrating or graphic design like he'd dreamed of as a kid. That is to say, in between dreaming of being a famous footballer and finding out he was a wizard. Worst comes to worst, though, he could probably go back to the old summer standby of paper boy. That's something they'd let him do, regardless of his race or age.

When the subject of money came up, Dean frowned. His hands, which were shoved inside his jeans pockets for warmth, closed around the few coins there (5 pounds 80p, plus 9 sickles, if he recalled correctly). "Yeah, not much in the way of cash at the moment... going to need to find a job sooner rather than later."

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just_lily
2011-08-17 01:30 pm UTC (link)

Lily hadn't honestly wanted to address that just yet, but it was likely best he'd caught on. She'd seen how the inequality ran rampant here, and she offered him a sympathetic smile. "They'll help you find something," she insisted softly. "It may not be the best thing in the world at first, but ..." She wanted to say 'it's only until we get home', but the longer she was here, the more she believed that would never happen. "Well, it'll be something, at any rate."

She gestured up ahead where the building was. "Just a few more blocks, and one of the people there will be able to set you right and get you started on everything. Give you some job leads maybe. That's likely what you'll be doing the first few days. Just ... chasing job leads." It was what she'd been doing. What Sirius was doing now. She wondered though what kind of work was out there for him, but ... well. She was certain there was something.

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