[THD] burn • k e e l a

It was a warm summer day and Freya and was spending it out and about with her friend. She’d bought a slice of pizza and now she and Keela were wandering through parts of muggle London, exploring the city’s streets. The blonde only worked a few days a week, so this entire summer had been a charmed one. She’d been partying every weekend and spending her days socialising and spending her newfound income. “I wonder how they turn them on and off,” Freya said vaguely, nodding at a streetlight as they passed it. Someone had tried to explain the whole electricity thing to her once - maybe Stewart - but she didn’t really get it. Something about currents and something about lots of little things moving around to make heat and light and whatever else. Freya had zoned out after the first few sentences, nodding with her “oh yes I totally get it and am super interested” face securely in place. As far as she was concerned, it was basically just magic.

Just as they rounded a corner, as Freya was biting into her pizza, the girls spotted someone splashing the front of what looked like a muggle bar with a jerry can of what smelled like alcohol. Freya stopped mid-bite, her mouth slightly agape. The young woman in front of them was blonde, average height and looked very determined. “Uhh….” Freya looked at Keela, wondering what was happening in front of them. Weird muggle thing maybe? Freya had a muggle born grandmother but she didn’t talk about muggle things very often. In front of the girls, the stranger pulled out a lighter with a satisfied smile and lit the petrol on fire. Without even glancing their way, she dusted off her hands and got the hell out of there as the place lit up. Freya stared, mouth slightly ajar as she held her pizza. "What the fu-"

It had only recently dawned on Keela that this was her last true summer vacation ever.
She had spent the vast majority of it at the Academy Anansi, but had come home for a weekend to visit (read: placate) her family and spend some quality time with her friends that had graduated this past term before she herself returned to Hogwarts – without them. Not having Freya with her in the Common Room or on the Pitch would be the strangest of all, she thought.

But now was certainly not the time to dwell on that.
The girls had spent most of the day roaming around Muggle London, experimenting with the transportation and window-shopping and – most importantly – eating. Freya was working on a slice of pizza; Keela had practically inhaled hers, and had already moved on to her slowly-melting ice cream cone. Preoccupied as she was with containing the dribbles, she’d merely shrugged in response to Freya’s question about a streetlight they’d just passed.
“Dunno. Still can’t imagine how they get by without magic… wild, that is.”

Keela was half a pace behind her friend when the blonde suddenly stopped, and fortunately Keela was able to stop quickly enough herself to avoid up-ending her ice cream onto Freya’s back. Bewildered, she turned to her former teammate.
“What—?”
But she stopped mid-sentence as she registered the sharp scent of something, and followed it back to see what Freya had undoubtedly noticed. Dumbstruck, she could only look on in disbelief as the woman lit a match, tossed it into the pungent liquid, and set off at a brisk pace. Keela yelped as the bar-front went up in a WHOOSH of flame, instinctively grabbing Freya’s wrist and dragging her back around the corner. Her pale blue eyes were wide and her mouth hung open; vaguely, she registered that Freya was wearing an identical expression.

“What in the name of Merlin’s saggy drawers was that?” she hissed, daring to peek back around the corner. Fortunately no screams or anything of the sort sounded from inside, and Keela relaxed infinitesimally at the realization. Still, she cast an uneasy glance at Freya.
“Should we get the Muggle authorities?”

Much too later, Keela’s brain registered the crunch of boots on gravel.
“Beg your pardon, ladies,” came a very masculine voice from directly behind them. “Is there a problem?”

Slowly, Keela turned, unsure as to whether to allow her expression to remain bewildered or to wipe it clean. She hoped it wouldn’t have mattered either way, for a burly Muggle law enforcement man – police? – was staring down at them, one bushy eyebrow cocked expectantly.

She bit her lip, hard.

The flames were hungry creatures, licking at the wood ravenously. Freya felt Keela grab her wrist. She was flung around the corner as Keela dragged her away from the crackle of the flames. For a moment, she was reminded of entirely different flames surrounded by monsters and trees rather than buildings. It was impossible not to. Even happy-go-lucky Freya Trickett had not entirely escaped the terribly intrusive mini-flashbacks of the horrors they’d experienced at Hogwarts. Horrible Hogwarts horrors, she thought distantly. Things reminded her of it all the time, but she was lucky to not experience it all with the same level of trauma as some of her peers.

Freya watched Keela look around the corner at the growing fire. “Maybe we should just put it out?” She said, scratching her head. It wasn’t long before they started hearing sirens. “Fire ambulance,” Freya said knowingly. She remembered being freaked out by the loud sounds recently when she’d been out with Finn in muggle London. He’d explained to her that muggle had special cars to put out fires, take people to hospitals and other ones to catch criminals. They all had special uniforms to show people what their jobs were. Fascinating. The blondes turned around, surprise evident on their faces as someone approached from behind. “Muggle cop,” Freya muttered, her honey-coloured eyes widening in surprise. “There’s a fire,” Freya blurted, clearly flustered. Freya had had muggleborn friends before but really the whole muggle world was a mystery to her. She didn’t know what she could say that would or wouldn’t incriminate her as being from another world.

“Yes I see that,” was the answer. Freya blinked. Why was he so intimidating? She noticed that there were a couple more similarly-dressed people hanging back a little way away. The man continued, “We have a report of a young woman matching your…” he glanced between them, “…well, matching both of your descriptions - young, blonde - in this area. You don’t happen to know anything about that do you?”

Keela was only half-attending to the terminology Freya was providing for her benefit as she struggled to come up with a plan.

Unfortunately, they were quite a distance away from the Leaky Cauldron and the relative safety of Diagon Alley by now. If they could just distract this Muggle cop long enough to make a break for it… they were both of-age, so they could just Apparate away once they’d turned a corner or something and the Muggles would be none the wiser. But then that meant that they could probably never show their faces in Muggle London again… Not a good solution, no.
Right, so they’d tell him exactly what they’d seen, and with any luck he’d let them go without a fuss. And then they could hightail it back to the magical world and wait until this blew over.

Fortunately Freya spoke up and Keela nodded along with as much eagerness as she could muster, but the burly man did not seem impressed. At his mention that the suspect in question was young and blonde, Keela resisted the urge to both glance and Freya and to let loose a string of very rude Gaelic words, biting her tongue just in time.
‘Damnú aír!’ she settled for shouting mentally instead. So much for being let go without a fuss…
He asked for more information, and Keela hedged her bets.
If they told the truth, there was the possibility that he’d leave them be and pursue the real felon. There was also the possibility that he’d keep them around to make sure their story checked out.
If they lied and said they hadn’t seen anything, he might take their word for it and let them go. Or he might keep them around for further question. Not to mention the fact that they actually had seen something…

Making her decision, the blonde nodded another affirmative.
“We saw it happen, sir, just now. We were just going for a walk after getting pizza and ice cream, turned the corner, and saw a blonde woman of about average height dousing the storefront in… something.”
‘Ifrinn, what was it called?’ she thought frantically, feeling a mild panic swell in her chest. It had a distinctively “Muggle world” smell to it, for she couldn’t remember smelling anything in the magical world quite like it.

“Er, maybe alcohol? It didn’t quite smell like it, though… we were too far away to see, really,” she added hastily, again barely quelling a sidelong glance at Freya. It wouldn’t do to act shifty. “But then the woman lit a match, tossed it on whatever the stuff was, and walked off. That way,” she clarified, pointing to the street catty-corner to the next block down.

The burly policeman gave them an expectant look.
“Oh? And what then?”

Something was clearly happening here that Freya didn't understand. The muggle guy didn't seem to believe anything they were saying and instead just kept asking questions and giving them skeptical looks. Was this how things were supposed to happen in the muggle law enforcement system? The blonde didn't know. Maybe Stewart could explain it better. Freya was distracted by the sound of more sirens as more fire ambulances pulled up to put the fire out. The blonde even turned away from the conversarion happening between Keela and the muggle so she could peer around the corner and get a look at the way they were putting the fire out. It was so odd, like hoses were coming out of the car things...

Freya played absentmindedly with her hair as she watched it all happen. Muggles were so odd. Freya wondered what would have happened if none of them had come. Would it have been better if she'd just put the fire out herself with her wand? What were the moral and ethical things to do when faced with a situation like that? Surely running around performing magic to save muggles was the right thing to do...? The girl snapped back to the present as Keela and the muggle exchanged more sentences.

"And then what?" Freya asked impatiently. She wanted to get out of here; she wanted to go back to the magical world. Muggles were kind of weird and this whole ordeal was tiring. She had some existential and ethical stuff to work out when it came to breaking wizarding law to protect them. Plus, this guy seemed like kind of a jerk. "Then she left and the fire started and then your fire ambulances came to put the fire out and you asked us a bunch of questions." She was being honest, but the policeman's eyebrows kept going up and up on his wrinkly forehead. Freya looked to Keela for help. Had she made a mistake?

The man raised an eyebrow at Freya’s impatience, but his expression changed abruptly to one of extreme puzzlement.
“Fire… ambulances?”

But before he could inquire further, another man dressed in the same uniform approached him and tapped him on the shoulder, drawing their inquisitor away for a moment. Keela felt her friend’s eyes on her and slid her gaze sideways, shrugging helplessly. How were they going to get out of this without making a scene? She had wormed her way out of complicated circumstances cleverly before, but there was quite a bit at stake here.

Keela exhaled slowly; her heart was a jackrabbit in her chest and she wasn’t entirely convinced it could have taken much more. Apparently it could, though, for an earsplitting ‘WEEEoooh WEEEoooh WEEEoooh’ announcing the approach of another fire ambulance nearly stopped it completely.

Opportunely, she glanced over to see the second Muggle cop gesture his partner in the direction of their… cars? (Did they have a special name like the fire ambulances? She wasn’t sure.) Keela shifted her weight uneasily, nearly forgetting about the ice cream she held until it began to drip down her hand. Quickly, she licked it off just as the new cop returned.

“Terribly sorry to trouble you, ladies,” he began, with a seemingly genuine apologetic smile. “I spoke with Mrs. Hodge – she owns the florist shop across the street – who saw the whole thing. She says she saw you both come around the corner but insisted neither of you were involved. Since that corroborates with what you’ve told my partner, here, you both are free to go. Have a pleasant afternoon.”
He tipped his hat then and moved off to what was left of the storefront, conferring with a few other people who had gathered there.

Blinking stupidly but having enough sense to thank him politely before he left, Keela automatically linked arms with Freya and steered the pair of them away, hardly daring to look at her friend until they had returned to relative safety of the Leaky Cauldron.

Freya was only half listening as the officer spoke again. Honestly? She was kind of done with this muggle business. "Fire ambulances," she repeated, her expression serious and entirely deadpan. F-i-r-e a-m-b-u-l-a-n-c-e-s. Freya almost spelled the words out loud for him because she didn't care if he was annoyed, but she held her tongue because she really had no idea how muggle law enforcement worked. The prospect of being sent to muggle prison, while exciting and alluring in a weird way, wasn't how she'd wanted to spend the afternoon. Freya picked at the frayed edges of her shorts absentmindedly. She was always fiddling with something or another; couldn't sit sitll.

The blonde almost huffed in exasperation as he pardoned them, but kept quiet as her friend gave a quick thank-you. "How weird was that?" she asked in a conspiratorial whisper as they moved away from the scene. When they were far enough away, Freya had to laugh because it just all seemed so silly to her. When she was home, she'd have to tell Finn about this. "C'mon," she said, squeezing their interlinked arms as they headed towards Diagon Alley, "Lets go get some more food."