[mp] oxford comma [deirdre]

She might look the part, but Linnet couldn't help feeling uncomfortable here. No matter how she tried to convince herself that she had every right to be in a room at a public event, the greater part of her still wished she was outside, barefoot and strolling through the forest. Even in the depth of winter she had those feelings and knew she always would, though she doubted the Caledonian Forest was going to be her favourite place when there were several feet of snow on the ground.

"Maybe I'll spend the winter in the mediterranean" she murmured to herself, and then glanced around in case anyone had heard. Apparently not, though. Everyone attending this event seemed to be far too interested in the forthcoming auction of first editions - or in themselves, she thought with a small, private smile as a woman wearing a hat so wide it would have kept the rain off her entire family walked by. Linnet wondered how the woman would react if she realised Linnet had had to borrow a pair of shoes for the event, and had to turn to face the wall momentarily until the urge to giggle had passed.

When she turned back, she realised Ms Robbins was signalling to her from across the room. She nodded surreptitiously and then made her way across, not thinking anything out of the ordinary was afoot.

A few minutes later all had become clear. She hadn't been invited along simply as a thank you for doing a good job recently. Apparently there was a wizard here who had already tricked two elderly witches out of large sums of money by binding newer volumes to resemble first editions. His identity was no secret; and what he was doing was immoral rather than actually illegal, but as yet nobody had caught him in the act. Linnet sighed. Rather than relaxing, she suddenly needed to follow one of the other guests - naturally whilst not being spotted herself - and see if he did or said anything suspicious that could help build the case against him.

She caught sight of him easily enough, positioning herself so she could watch as he paged through various novels on one of the second hand stalls in the foyer. Hardly anything interesting there. Then he turned and headed across the room. Linnet slipped away to follow, her face colouring as she realised he was heading into the restrooms. She spun around, needing to find something that seemed to occupy her attention while still paying attention and found herself face to face with

"Deirdre?"

@Deirdre Coltrane

When her grandparents had told her to join them, Deirdre had been reluctant. She got their point, of course. They were a respectable upper middle class family. Her mother, however, was not part of that society. Her grandparents had given up on their daughter, their grandchild wasn’t beyond hope, though. Deirdre was an apprentice at a Scottish apothecary with a long tradition.

Deirdre had chosen a green velvet dress and was wearing a pearl necklace her grandmother had lent her for the occasion. It was as though she was mimicking the perfect grandchild - only with the small problem that she wasn’t a child anymore and hated to be her grandparents’ doll.

Nonetheless Deirdre could see that she profited from being introduced to high society. It was never a bad thing to be well connected. While that had been her thought entering the room, Deirdre second guessed her motivation after the first long chat about the health problems of elderly men.

She had quietly moved away from the conversation to find herself face to face with Linnet. Much to her own surprise, she was actually happy to see her. The slightly older girl did look out of place at this event but that had to be expected. Clearly the Hufflepuff graduate didn’t have any of Deirdre’s dignity or so the Slytherin graduate felt at least.

“Hello Linnet,” she greeted her colleague from the detective agency that she was working for occasionally. “What are you doing here?” Her voice made it quite clear that she didn’t consider Linnet to belong here. “Got a job from Ms Robbins?”

While she and Deirdre were hardly friends Linnet was delighted to see her at that moment; moreover she could hardly imagine anyone else she would have preferred to see. Anyone else might have wondered why Linnet appeared to be following a strange man in the direction of a bathroom but here she could be honest if the younger girl asked which, if course, she did. Observation skills was one of the few things they had in common, after all.

"Ms Robbins invited me along. It was kind of her; I do love books even though the first editions are a little outside my budget" she said, trying to sound casual in case anyone overheard. Unlike a lot of conventional witches Linnet was unable to cast a charm to ensure she wouldn't be overheard. But Deirdre appeared to understand anyway.

"Yes, a rogue bookbinder - a terrible master criminal" she said with a small grin to show she meant the exact opposite of her words "I'm so glad it was you I just bumped into, I'd hate to try and explain to anyone else why I'm standing near..." she trailed off, knowing she had said more than enough to be understood. She decided to change the subject, though given that she and Deirdre were such different people it took her a few seconds to find something more interesting than "I love your dress, the colour really suits you"

It gave her a moment to think, though, and remember the sort of smalltalk that was expected in these sorts of places. "Are you here with your family?" she asked, realising she knew next to nothing about Deirdre's situation other than she was a pureblood and considered herself somewhat better than Linnet. As she spoke, she turned slightly, angling herself so she could see when the man emerged through the ornate door.

Nodding, Deirdre glanced around. Nobody took notice of them and that was good. She neither wanted her grandparents to come looking for her, nor did she need any acquaintances to see her with Linnet. It was not that she didn’t like the other girl. Linnet was okay, it wasn’t her fault that she was born into a family of less fortune and that she was muggleborn. However, the fact that it wasn’t her fault didn’t make her blood any purer or her bank account any more filled.

“Yes, I see,” Deirdre said, looking at Linnet curiously. Why had Ms Robbins chosen Linnet to accompany her? She did look suspiciously out of place. She could have asked Deirdre instead. Then again Deirdre was only working for the agency part time and had told Ms Robbins weeks ago that she had no time for a job today.

“Well, first editions are nice as a collector’s item,” Deirdre tried to comfort Linnet, “but if you just want to read a book it doesn’t matter which edition you get. The text will probably be exactly the same.”

Deirdre hid an amused smirk as she listened to Linnet’s explanation of who her target was and explained that she felt uncomfortable lingering in front of the men’s toilet. Before Deirdre could respond, though, the other girl already changed the subject, complimenting Deirdre on her dress.

“Why thank you,” Deirdre said softly, looking Linnet up and down and then deciding not to return a compliment herself.

“Yes, with my grandparents,” she gratefully accepted the next change of topic. “They love this kind of event and invited me along to introduce me to some interesting people.” Well, they weren’t all that interesting if she was honest but these people were wealthy and most of them had children and grandchildren of their own who were likely a lot more interesting to Deirdre than her grandparents’ acquaintances were.