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Tweak says, "You are a people too"

Roger Davies (agile) wrote in wished,
@ 2010-01-17 00:14:00

Entry tags:

!1998: 01, !complete, fleur delacour, fred weasley, hestia jones, roger davies

Who: Roger Davies, Fleur Delacour-Weasley, Hestia Jones, & Fred Weasley
When: 17th January, 1998
Where: Diagon Alley: WWW
What: Roger starts his first day working for the twins. Things go exactly as he expected, as he and Fred fall into trouble and find out just what Nagini has been up to.
Rating: R

All in all, Roger's first day working for the twins was shaping up to be quite the pleasant experience. He got to mess around with some amazing products that showed ingenuity that some might not have expected from a couple of pranksters, while flirting with the occasional bird that happened to visit the joke shop. He would have joked that they were paying him to just hang around and look pretty, if he wasn't so sure that they would really put him to work if he said that.

That wasn't to say he wasn't doing something that constituted as 'work.' Moving boxes, checking the inventory, counting countless amounts of product, keeping things tidy were all work-related and it kept him occupied during the lull between customers. He could only hope that this was what a regular day would consist of while he worked there.

Signing a piece of parchment for a child that wasn't yet old enough to go to Hogwarts, but old enough to know who he was, Roger gave him a grin and said, "Remember to tell all your friends where to shop now." Standing up from his crouched position, he waved at the small gaggle of kids gathered by the window, looking in with a mixture of envy and uncertainty, and laughed when they all scattered at his acknowledgment.

Yes. He could get used to this. Turning away as the young fan ran out of the shop with a bag of purchases, he hopped up on the counter and wondered where the twins were. He hadn't heard any worrying bangs from their backroom in too long now.

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agile
2010-01-17 07:41 am UTC (link)

Watching as Fred used the extendable ear, Roger could suddenly see a lot more of the Weasley products in a more practical light. They weren't just there for fun and games.

"Well, it's up to you if we go in, wands blazing," Roger whispered back, tightening his grip on his wand as he reached for the door knob. He didn't do anything more than touch it though, looking to see if Fred was still ready to open the door or if he rather they head out the other way.

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weasleyforge
2010-01-17 06:20 pm UTC (link)

Fred thought about it for a moment, then shrugged and nodded for Roger to open the door. Because honestly, a situation like this, creepy house with dust everywhere and someone - obviously a wizard since the house was on the floo network - walking around when they shouldn't be because everything else looked deserted? You had to investigate. Or, if you were a Weasley and an Order member, you had to investigate.

It could have been a muggleborn on the run, or something.

Roger opened the door, and when Fred looked in he was surprised, though, to see an old woman. Old as in ancient, shuffling and turning to look at them from the dark sitting room.

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agile
2010-01-17 07:50 pm UTC (link)

Pulling the door open swiftly, he pressed back against the wall adjacent to it, waiting for either an attack or a shout of surprise. When neither happened, he raised his wand again and looked around the open door to see what Fred was seeing.

Seeing the old woman, he gave her a confused smile. "Uh. Sorry ma'am. Didn't mean to drop in on you like this." Roger was already starting to let his guard down, deeming the old woman as not a threat.

But there was something off about her, something in her face from what very little he could see of it in the dark.

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weasleyforge
2010-01-18 02:27 am UTC (link)

"No..." The woman only whispered, her voice a broken sort of hiss, and she started to hobble toward them. She was small, Fred figured she'd barely come to his chest if she was in front of him, hunched over and alone here in this old dusty house.

It was sad, really.

He lowered his wand hand, watching her. "Did you need help with something?" He asked, more polite than Roger had probably ever heard him or his brother. You just weren't rude to ancient little old ladies.

"Stay..." Came the same, hissed and wheezed old voice. There was light coming through the window, and as she came closer, Fred noticed the smell - she smelled awful.

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agile
2010-01-18 03:13 am UTC (link)

The rank smell reached him nearly at the same time it reached Fred. Roger tried not to pull a face at the offending odor, but he lost that battle too easily as he took an uncertain step back. He couldn't precisely describe the smell, but the closest he could compare it to was the smell of moldy old compost.

There was no discreet way to hold his hand to cover his mouth and nose. "Ma'am, should we call a Healer?" Roger knew that older people tended to have an unique smell to them, but they certainly didn't smell like this. Combined with the wheezing, hissing tone of voice, he thought that she might have been abandoned here by someone without assistance.

He forced himself to take a step forward, then another, toward the old woman. Roger intended on helping her to a chair or something, so they could figure out a way to get all this sorted. But his movement toward her caused an almost violent reaction from the woman.

She lunged at him!

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weasleyforge
2010-01-18 03:36 am UTC (link)

It was the smell of old age, and dust, and unwashed clothes and molded stale food, and it intensified the closer she got and smelled of decay, too. Fred didn't begrudge Roger the need to cover his bloody nose.

Quite a few things happened in a quick succession, then. The hunched old woman walked into the light of a window, and Fred got a good look at her - her hands seemed blue and mottled and her eyes were thick with cataracts and sunken into folds of nearly translucent folds of her face, skin dotted and broken with liver spots and broken veins. He thought she was blind, maybe, but she shuffled right to them which made it less likely.

And then before he could do anything - like hold his own nose, maybe - the woman had lunged at Roger, and really lunged, not as if she was scared or reacting, but as if she was going for his bloody throat.

"Oi!" He called, and no matter who she was, or how old and sad, he grabbed for her, arms around her waist to pull her back from Roger. Her skin was cold, freezing even through the heavy robes, and as he grabbed her something else happened... the skin seemed to slough off under his hands, and he let go, alarmed, just in time to see the body collapsing, and a great snake pouring from a now gaping hole where her neck had been.

He raised his wand, but a bite to his forearm - so fast that he hadn't seen the snake sodding move - sent his wand spinning up toward the ceiling, then a powerful blow to his stomach from the tail knocked the breath out of him, and Fred fell backwards onto a moldy sofa, into a mound of filthy clothing.

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agile
2010-01-18 04:01 am UTC (link)

"Merlin," Roger breathed, holding his neck where she had nicked him what had felt like abnormally sharp nails. He stumbled back as Fred grabbed hold of the woman and got enough of his bearings back to point his wand at her. But before he could try to talk her down from the obvious fit she was having, he watched in horror as she literally fell apart.

He wasn't fast enough to stop the giant snake as it attacked Fred, but as it turned away from its attack on Fred to lunge again at him, he shouted, "Depulso!" It sent the snake flying away from him, as he hurried over to where Fred had fallen and went about helping him stand. "Can you get up, mate?" He asked, casting a light spell to give the room more light so he could see the snake coming more clearly the next time she attacked.

Whatever the hell was going on, his priority was to get Fred out of there. The bite on his arm didn't look good at all and who knew what kind of poisons this snake had? Roger ignored the pain in his injured arm, as he used it to drag Fred away from the couch and back toward the way they had come to put some distance between them.

"Are you up for going Side-Along?" He asked, not wanting to risk getting lost in the Floo Network with an injured Fred. The only other choice was dragging him out into the open outdoors. And who knew what was waiting there?

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weasleyforge
2010-01-18 04:23 am UTC (link)

Fred could get up, he'd be damned if some giant snake - and it dawned on him from the way his arm was burning that that was the same blood snake that had attacked his father! - would put him on the ground.

"Accio wand!" He called, angry, and his wand flew back to his hand. But he spared a look at Roger, and Roger's throat was bleeding, and it looked like his arm was hurt too, and Fred was almost abnormally good at assessing a situation quicker than most. It was his wand arm that was bit, and it hurt to even close his hand around his sodding wand. No way he could fight like this.

"I'll take us," he said instead, because the snake looked like it was shaking off the spell that Roger had thrown at it and getting ready to strike again.

He'd apparate them, because he was at least more used to being able to focus on a spell through pain and he didn't know how much experience Roger had with that. But where to take them. He had a split decision to make a choice, because he could see the snake rearing up again, and he grabbed hold of Roger suddenly and sent them both spiraling.

They ended up on a cliff overlooking the sea, in front of a lonely and beautiful little cottage, its walls embedded with shells and whitewashed. Fred sagged against Roger as they landed there, and he could feel whatever poison was in that bite, spreading fast up his arm.

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agile
2010-01-18 05:07 am UTC (link)

Roger wasn't nearly as injured as Fred and even though he felt the blood on his throat, it was a superficial scratch more than anything else. The arm he was used to, it having been aching for the past few days, but he went along with allowing Fred to Apparate them out of there. He probably knew where to go, what, being apart of the Order and all that.

It was only belatedly that he even thought about how dangerous it might have been to Apparate to St. Mungo's or the shop.

"I got you," Roger said, after the initial feeling of vertigo passed. He pulled the sagging Fred up again, before half-dragging him toward the little cottage that they had appeared in front of. He could only assume that Fred had been thinking about going to a place that could potential help them and he trusted Fred's judgment under these circumstances. He didn't have much choice otherwise.

Pounding on the cottage door, he shouted, "Help! We need help out here!" He had no idea that this beautiful cottage belonged to his old Yule Ball date, so he was going to be in for a shock in a few seconds.

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	weasleyforge 2010-01-18 05:12 am UTC (link)
	"Bloody hell, stop screaming, they're not deaf." Fred said, and he could walk on his own steam but whatever it was in that bite was making him dizzy enough to slump against Roger's side. He really sodding hoped that Fleur or Bill were home. Breaking into his brother's home didn't seem like the best idea while poisoned. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

bleuet
2010-01-18 05:29 am UTC (link)

If there was one thing Fleur had not been counting on tonight, it was visitors. Bill had been gone since Friday evening, away on bank business, and she wasn't expecting him back until Tuesday afternoon. She'd resigned herself to a pleasantly quiet, if boring and lonely, few days at the cottage. It could be nice, having a bit of time all to herself.

Fleur had just gotten in shortly, having been out on errands and some personal shopping. She was wandering through the house, putting a few things away and thinking she might take a long bath and enjoy a light snack before catching up on some paperwork for tomorrow morning. Just as she had begun gathering towels and arranging the bathroom, she heard a pounding at the front door. It was accompanied by muffled shouts, and though she couldn't make it out perfectly, Fleur definitely detected the word "help".

Knowing that it could easily be a friend in danger, but also aware that now was not a time to be easily trusting, Fleur snatched her wand up from the bed and stalked out to the door. She stopped just in front of it, her hand hovering over the knob, the other holding her wand aloft.

Eyes narrowed, she opened the door a crack and peered out, "Help? Who is th-"

Her eyes settled immediately on Fred, and his companion - both were clearly doing badly. Forgetting any notion of caution when confronted with this vision, Fleur opened the door a bit more, looking stricken. "Oh la vache! Fred? What in- come in here!"

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agile
2010-01-18 05:37 am UTC (link)

The shock of seeing Fleur again was very brief, the situation at hand taking precedent over whatever pleasant memories he had of her. "He was bit by a snake. I think I got nicked by some finger nails, but it's not that serious," Roger explained, as he led the way to into the cottage. It was a nice place, with a homey atmosphere and he felt infinitely better by being somewhere like this.

It felt safe. "Do you know anything about healing?" His own skills in the area were rudimentary at best and horrible at worse. The only thing he could think of right then was to clean out the wound and get it bandaged. "Or do you know anyone that can come help us?"

Off the top of his head, only Madam Pomfrey came to mind as someone not connected to St. Mungo's. Which as no help at all, all things considered.

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