Heels clicking quickly against the cobble stones, Ceridwen jogged to meet the edge of a crowd standing right outside of Gringotts. Surely it was a fine idea to leave the shop in the hands of her good friend Mallory while Ceri checked out what was going on down the road. She only wanted to see the topic of the protest, and wouldn't be gone for more than five minutes.
Just as she suspected. Goblin rights. A topic that Ceri was passionate about. Witches and wizards
needed to stop treating them like second-class citizens. They had magic, intelligence, powers beyond the reach of wizardkind. And yet, the ministry and other authoritative bodies still treated them as lesser. Some would argue that if Goblins were given the same rights as wizards, that the same would need to be offered to Centaurs and other "humanoid" creatures. With their extensive integration into wizarding society and the great benefit they provide to the witches and wizards of Great Britain, Ceri thought it should be a no-brainer to allow them to own property, hold public office, or to simply be
respected as equal to a wizard.
She moved closer, towards the heart of the crowd, just barely able to see the Goblin standing on a wooden box in the center. Bilchar, the Goblin heading the rally, was notorious amongst activist groups. His protests often became violent. Though it might've been better to have turned around to leave, Ceri couldn't help but stop to listen, at least for a
few minutes. Mallory was free from work for the day, and she had run the shop by herself before. She could last a few more minutes.
A crowd grew around her, filling in spots in the busy square on a Thursday at lunchtime, and Ceri found herself standing there for greater than fifteen minutes. She wished that she had the nerve to speak her mind before a crowd like Bilchar. Sometimes she could hardly face herself in the mirror. With the increasing number of onlookers and surrounded on all sides, Ceri did her best to make room for shorter witches and wizards to move to the front. She did, however, notice one man in particular, a tall, thin wizard with a beard that didn't match his hair. He had bumped into her quite roughly a few moments earlier, and though annoyed, Ceri pretended to be unbothered. After a few minutes, the wizard's shoulder came into her neck, sending her stumbling to the side. Once again, she kept her cool.
On the third contact, Ceri drew her wand and pointed it at the man, hoping that her reaction would be enough to show her intended message. Instead, she was met with a curse. Immediately, Ceridwen fell to her knees, her wand clattering to the ground as she lost all use of her hands, her legs locked and stiff. This was the curse used by Law Enforcement... Ceridwen was being arrested... Bollocks.
"Hey" She itched to straighten out her legs, to stand up, to grab her wand. She was utterly powerless. "Excuse me, sir? I haven't done anything!" She looked for the tall man who had been there before, watching as other witches and wizards scattered. Soon Bilchar was gone, too.
"Sir! There was a man bumping into me!
Quite roughly! I
nearly ate the cobblestones at our feet!" He responded with some quip about "pointing her wand menacingly", as if Ceri had intended to inflict the Cruciatus curse upon the stranger. She simply wanted to scare him off a bit!
Why was she so
unlucky?
@Kit Emberton 
