Magical Hogwarts

Ros didn't know Honey very well, to be honest, and her stored knowledge of the other woman lied primarily in what Ferg told her. But any idiot would know that Ros would do just about anything for her friends. She loved Fergie and so it really wasn't much trouble to check on Honey. In her mind it wasn't even just Honey, either, since Fergie owned half of Honeydukes, too. Truly even if she didn't want to help her friend there was still a large part of her that would want to help anyway. (It was the Auror in her, she knew, because you could never be too careful, even now. Maybe especially now)

"Hullo?" she called out, as she poked her head through the shop. Her teal eyes were immediately drawn towards the sugar quills, before bouncing back towards all the other confections. Maybe she'd do a bit of candy shopping after this. There was a reason she tended to avoid candy shops and it was because she had zero self control. She loved sweet things and had a very difficult time not just going on a splurge for stuff that weren't good for her. She looked at the wall longingly for a second before she refocused. She was here for a purpose, she told herself, as she made her way further into the shop. "Honey?" she called out again, biting her lip. "Its Ros!" she tacked on.

http://magical-hogwarts.com/index.php?action=profile;u=23459' rel='nofollow noopener' target='_blank'>@Honey Bea Flume

Honey heard the hullo from downstairs and rolled her eyes; just because she had left the door unlocked after getting breakfast a couple hours ago didn’t mean they could ignore the closed sign. But mid-eye-roll it hit her-- Ros, the wards. She was meant to be here. Honey’s eyes went wide as she stood up. “You gotta go.” She wasn’t panicked, half grinning as she tossed him the leather jacket slung over the arm of the sofa. She snatched up yesterday’s jumper and pulled it on as the voice downstairs yelled her name. She’d have to trust he could see himself out.

“Ros, hi,” she called from the landing above the shop, waving the hand that wasn’t grabbing the railing. She moved down the spiral staircase in her wool socks. “Hi,” she said again. “Sorry, I forgot you were coming.” Even though Fergie had reminded her yesterday. The wards on the flat needed some work and Ros had done them last time, when Fergie was living here; she didn’t mind coming back to tend to them even though he had moved out.

Honey smiled as she moved toward the other woman. “Thanks for coming on your day off.” It was easier than coming on Honey’s day off, probably, what with Easter coming up (among other things). “They’ve not failed or anything--” the wards, she meant, waving vaguely at the ceiling and the flat above-- “But y’know.”

She gazed up, following the motion of her hand to look skyward. Had that been long enough? She looked back at Ros with another smile. “Do you want a coffee?”

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"Hullo'." she greeted back, smile on her lips, as her teal eyes roved over the other woman's somewhat breathless greeting. She resisted the urge to tell her not to run down the stairs in her wooly socks ,feeling her anxiety spike a bit, at the thought of Fergie's sister slipping down the bloody stairs. She could picture that floo call. 'Sorry Ferg, I lost track of your sister for about a second and we are now at Mungo's, nope she fine, don't freak out!' the thought was as bizare as it was amusing and her fingers twitched by her holster, just in case. "I'm always glad to help!" she offered, shooting her a lopsided grin. That she'd do pretty much anything for Fergie, and by extension his sister, went without saying. Her friend didn't even need to ask, really, she offered what she could freely.

"Don't worry about it, really. If you were busy I can come back later though?" she asked, tilting her head curiously, her eyes flickering over towards the stairs, before landing on Honey again. "Coffee would be good." she agreed, resisting the urge to whip out her wand and start prodding at the wards to see if they'd been tampered with at all. "Was the Intruder Charm set off?" she asked, frowning a bit. Sometimes it could be a bit sensitive but she'd start scanning immediately if it had gone off, just on principle alone. Sometimes magical beings got too close to the wards once they became active and depending on sensitivity even a kneazle might have been able to set it off. "Anything you heard or saw would be helpful, even if the answer is you didn't see or hear anything at all." she added, glancing at Honey and frowning a bit.

Usually she was a lot more laid back when she was off duty but work always managed to make her a smidge more serious and focused. Plus she quite enjoyed working on difficult and finicky things like wards. Bit of a fun speciality for her, if she were honest, especially when you considered the things she usually ended up having to investigate.

“No, no, just--” she paused to collect her thoughts, mentally scolding herself for not coming up with some other excuse in the ten seconds it took her to come downstairs-- “Got caught up reading.” Her mind had blanked, clearly, but Honey didn’t think Ros knew her well enough to know how ridiculous the thought of Honey reading a book really was.

But coffee. “Coffee,” she said, dropping her gaze from the ceiling to land back on Ros’s face. “Upstairs.” She spun around and set back up the stairs, looking back over her shoulder at Ros’s next question. “Hmm?” The intruder charm. “Oh, no.” She waved the hand not holding the handrail through the air, mirroring her nonchalance. “Not while I’ve been here, anyway.” Ros went on, clarifying, and Honey nodded as she reached the landing, hesitating for a second before pushing the door open, holding her breath until it was clear her guest had cleared out. “I’m not here every night, so--” She closed the door behind the other woman.

The flat was clean, mostly, or as much as it would ever be. It was cozy (small); the lounge was the first thing directly inside the door, the larger kitchen farther inside. The fire was lit and the flat was warm, and Honey made quick work of getting the coffee started on the stove. “So I guess I saw and heard nothing,” she said with another shrug, turning to rest her backside against the bench.

“I think mostly I just want everything to be looked at, maybe make the front door easier for me to unlock when I’m stumbling home.” She laughed, finding herself funny. “And the cleared apparating space?” She pointed to the hearth. “Smaller. Or moved, I dunno.” She would tell everyone who needed to know it had changed, and maybe lower the chances of being dropped in on unexpectedly.

"I understand that." she agreed with a bit of a laugh. If anyone understood getting caught up reading a good book, it was her. "Don't worry about it." she added, not wanting to sound like it was an inconvenience or anything, because it really wasn't. She followed the other woman upstairs, taking a moment to look around, before she focused on Honey. As she spoke Ros' guard went slowly down. Nothing was amiss, then, just routine check. She could indulge in some coffee to wake her brain up a bit before she got to work. "Thats what the wards are for, so you don't have to worry either way." she said with a bit of a laugh.

"I'll check them thoroughly and update anything that might need an update. I was just curious if the alarms had sounded is all, so I'll need to check for sensitivity. I'd rather have them go off than not, so mine are pretty sensitive." she admitted,?á but she was rather paranoid. Her mother's shop held within it some very rare and priceless books, though, so they took quite a bit of precautions in terms of protection from a myriad of things. It was obnoxious, of course, because it was a pain to take down after they were activated but worth the peace of mind, at least in her opinion. "I can probably layer it." she offered, speaking out-loud. "Like there's a spot I could leave open so you can aparate in without setting anything off, only that would still leave it open. I can key it to your magical signature but there's ways of getting around that. Difficult, but possible." she added, mulling over what Honey wanted done.

The access point was easy enough to move, though it required a delicate touch. It was more the levels of accessibility that were the problem. The problem with layering was that you always left parts that were less protected than others and it didn't really sit right with her. You should always be aware of the weakest point in a ward but leaving it open on purpose sort of, well, went against the point in her opinion. She knew sometimes it was necessary but she'd rather just put full protections in place and then key whoever you wanted, in. She could probably make a key that carried access, in case Honey wanted to let someone in that wasn't strictly keyed in to begin with. Hmm. "We can talk about what you want while we drink coffee, yea? Then I'll give you some options as a study the wards." she offered, excited.

She always enjoyed a good puzzle, and wards were the biggest puzzle of all.

“Right.” And that made sense-- rather having the alarms go off than not. She was better about locking up these days, at least, though she still sometimes didn’t bother if she were just popping across the street for a few minutes. It wasn’t a great habit, anyway.

But Ros could probably layer it. Honey frowned thoughtfully, not wanting to overly complicate things. She wanted to be able to get into her own home, at any rate. Ros went on, however, and Honey nodded as she listened, crossing her arms across her chest as she got a bit more comfortable, leaning against the counter. “Possible is good.” She’d rather have it open, instead of keyed to magical signatures, because that meant Ros would need to key in specific individuals Honey wanted to have access, right? And Honey didn’t want to have to apparate someone in if she were inviting someone, and using the front door wasn’t always the best idea.

She didn’t mention any of that to Ros quite yet, however-- she wanted to figure out how to word her request without it sounding quite so sketchy, or aligning too well to any sort of Honey the Harlot reputation there was.

They could talk about it over coffee, though, and Honey nodded, uncrossing her arms as she pushed herself into standing up straight. “Coffee, right.” She was meant to be making that. She got the pot going after another few seconds, glancing over her shoulder every few words as she continued the conversation.

“I think I’m okay with the open spot.” She pulled two mugs off the shelf and set them out, rummaged for two spoons in the drawer. “For... guests.” She shrugged as casually as she could manage. “That door, though—“ Honey turned to point at the door that led back to the shop, the one they had just come through— “Can be keyed to me.” She nodded as she looked at the pot of coffee, nearly done. “Heavy wards on the shop, though. No apparating, no people...” Nothing really unchanged on those wards. It would only be inconvenient to open or close the shop if she weren’t there, and she always was so it wasn’t much of a problem.

She grabbed a bottle of cream from the cold cupboard and set it and the sugar bowl on the small kitchen table, looking at Ros again. “I’m not as worried about up here.” The shop was way more important, anyway.

"Like a receiving spot, maybe" she offered, contemplative. Personally she was paranoid but she understood that normal people maybe would prefer not to have company suffer from a major injury because a set of wards were set to kill. Some people tended to be thoughtful that way. "Do you have an area in mind?" she asked, curiously.

"Thanks!" she said, grabbing her mug, before flickering her gaze over towards the spot Honey had mentioned. "Thats doable. Its probably not different from what you had before, just probably needs to be checked they're still juiced up." sometimes that was the issue, but with so much ambient magic she doubted they'd be weak. Still it was always good to check. She tried not to eye the cream and sugar like one would a starving animal (she had a sweet tooth and it was awful) and waited patiently instead.

"It's still good to make sure you're protected, though." she said with some worry. Honey was living by herself and she needed to be careful. There were still a lot of awful people unaccounted for that were still out and about.

“Fireplace,” Honey said, nodding her head to the giant stone monstrosity that took up one entire kitchen wall. “Or just in front of it, on the hearth.” It wouldn’t do well to have people apparating into the flames, considering there was a lit fire ninety-five percent of the time.

She nodded as Ros made her assessment of things. It wouldn’t be that different from before, which is what she wanted; she didn’t want a drastic change. She turned toward the stove when she heard the coffee bubble; she pulled it off the stove and poured her cup, set it on the bench for Ros to pour her own. “Check it for juiciness,” Honey agreed with a nod, proof that she could listen and fix up her coffee at the same time. “Right.”

Honey took her mug--cream and sugar done up perfectly--to the kitchen table and took a seat, having a small sip before she lowered the mug to the table, her hands still wrapped around it.

Ros said it was good to make sure she was protected, and Honey smirked softly, thinking about a different sort of protection than whatever the auror was talking about. But she nodded after a second, ignoring the joke to be made. “Aye, I get that.” She nodded again, pursing her lips as she thought. “There’s still the floo, though,” she pointed out, which had always proven tricky to include in her previous wards so it was just there, available. And it hadn’t ever really worried her. But there was the other issue with the floo, if it was her only option for visitors: “But not everyone’s connected, so I do need the apparation option.”

“Can still be a smaller open spot, though, so they’ll need to be more precise?” That seemed like a good enough compromise.

The brunette shot the other witch a bit of a grin, a sort of mischievous look in her teal eyes before she sighed in disappointment. "Ruin all my fun why don't you." she murmured teasingly, only marginally she couldn't set up the receiving area inside the fireplace. Utterly amusing, that. Probably best she didn't, though, what with liability and all that.

"Thats the idea, yea. Or they'd risk general unpleasantness. Suppose you get to decide how unpleasant unauthorized entry into your home is, though." most people tended to shy away from 'lethal' at any rate. She didn't wager that Honey needed that sort of protection, though. Just your typical vagrants and vagabond protection. Cintch and splinch. "The smaller the space the more secure since only the people familiar with you and your would know about it. It also means you'd be fine with side-along, too, so it's more versatile." she suggested, with a little shrug, as she took a sip of her coffee.

"Aside from all that how've you been, though, overall?" she asked curiously, a small smile tugging at her lips.

“Great,” she said with a soft smirk. Honey could decide how lethal. “Can there be different levels of unpleasantness?” She asked with raised eyebrows. “Like, in the flat versus in the shop.” No reason killing anyone in the flat, anyway; there was nothing of value up here.

She nodded before sipping her coffee. The smaller the space, the safer the space. But: “Big enough for side-along, aye.” And big enough for Mr Flume, too.

The small talk was catching her a little off guard. Honey thought they would be discussing wards, but they had probably exhausted everything there was to say about them. “Good, aye, just--” Honey shrugged, glancing around her flat, the half-tidy kitchen. “Work, mostly.” She was trying to remember the last time she had seen Ros. Probably the last time Ros had been there for the wards so, over a year ago? A lot had happened in a year but not much she wanted to talk to Ros about.

She briefly considered asking how things with Will were going, but she couldn’t remember if Fergie said he had told Ros about Honey and Will dating--it was hard to keep track of--and she didn’t want to make this weird if he hadn’t already mentioned it.

So that left… quidditch? to talk about. “You still go for the Magpies?” They played Portree in a couple weeks, so there was something to talk about, at least.

Ros had the grace to sheepishly glance up at Honey, feeling the edges of her mouth turning up into a smile. How to explain, though? She operated under the assumption people tended to have generally bad intentions (not a super great view of the world but well you tended to be less surprised when you just expected the worst) and so it was a difficult thing to explain to normal people. "Maybe features would be more descriptive." she explained, laughing. "Not just location but... strength." she said diplomatically her face mild, even as her eyes danced with some mischief.

"Definitely, yea." she agreed, considering. "Safest to do it by dimensions, that way you know what you're working with." she added. "It's useful that you'd familiarize yourself with it exactly, just in case."?á and by that she meant were anything to happen she could use the security features to her advantage, sort of a mercenary outlook but Ros didn't mess around with safety. Especially when she felt Honey's general safety was sort of in her hands. No one messed with the Flumes, in her mind, or she'd go quite a bit rabid. It didn't matter how well she knew Honey personally or not, either.

"I sympathize." she said, wry, as she took a sip of her drink. Her eyes glimmered as Honey brought up Quidditch. "Definitely, though I suppose I have my heart open to more Scottish teams." she said with a bit of a laugh. The Magpies would always have a special place in her heart, though, that was certain. Her favorite team, even though she was quite anxious about their Cup prospects. "Games have been pretty brilliant." she added, because her family always made time for games. It was a Hayes family tradition at this point, though she figured Honey probably knew their family obsession.

"I can run through a few spells and fiddle with the wards, by the way. Just figured I'd finish this and then I could get started?" she added, feeling a bit sheepish as she enjoyed her drink, but not wanting to impose on Honey too much either.

 “Dimensions, aye,” she said with a nod. “My dad is–” she stopped herself from saying anything else; surely Ros had seen him when she had come into the shop when he was still working. “I’ve not got measurements but he’ll need more room than I do,” she finished with another nod before taking another sip of her coffee.

They were back to the small talk, but at least quidditch seemed like a safe topic (or safer than talking about Will, anyway). “You suppose?” She asked with a laugh. “There’s always Portree,” she added, grinning, though the thought of ever supporting a different team–even another Scottish one–was absurd. She’d worn Portree colors supporting Harlan, even, but that was the last thing she wanted to be thinking about now.

“They have, aye.” Brilliant matches, that is. “Maybe we’ll see you for the Portree match?” We being her and Fergie, who went to nearly every match in Portree. (She was still waiting to see how that panned out now that he was serious with Edith, who didn’t seem like much of a fan.)

Honey sipped her coffee before nodding again. “There’s no rush.” She shrugged, looking around her flat again. “Let me know if anything’s in your way.” She would find it hard to believe if the mess wasn’t in her way, honestly. “Or just shove things to the side. That’s what I usually do.” She stood up and stretched before moving to stand on the hearth of the large stonework fireplace. “This whole bit is open now,” she pointed down and moved her hands in the outline of the flagstones, a sharp contrast from the rest of the wooden floorboards.

“Maybe just this half should be?” She pointed to her left, the side with less pots and random fireplace implements.
 

 She refused to laugh at Honeys implied … concern over her fathers dimensions. That would be rather rude, wouldn’t it? It was sweet, though, and so she smiled a bit in understanding. She really didn’t need to specify. “I’ll take care of it.” She assured, nodding. She would make it work.

She wrinkled her nose a little, though she didn’t have anything against the Pride. It wasn’t their fault they weren’t the Magpies. “If I can’t root for the best team then I have to settle for less don’t I?” She teased, teal eyes glimmering. It was no secret she loved the Magpies, what with being a truly obsessive supporter. She always had loved Quidditch and excessive amount but her (along with the rest of her rambunctious family) were pretty loyal (voraciously) when it came to support.

“That sounds nice.” And it really did. She couldn’t remember ever being particularly … close with Honey but this was sort of, well, nice she supposed. She felt sort of guilty now, that she hadn’t tried to bond more with Honey. There wasn’t a particular reason, either, other than her main focus had been Fergie.

She glanced around, face pensive, as she swirled her wand in a slow circular movement. A light golden thread, like a spiders web, became visible and she hummed in thought. The wards still looked pretty good, huh? It always made her excited to be able to bring them up and literally poke and prod. "Pretty, isn't it?" she asked, a little grin on her face.  

 It sounded nice, Ros said, and Honey nodded in agreement. “Aye,” she said with a smile. She had no idea if the next Portree v. Magpies match was in Portree, but that was a detail to worry about some other time. She needed to at least remember talking about this with Ros– or she could mention it to Fergie and he could remember. He would. Ros was his friend, anyway, could be his guest at the match.

Honey was still standing on the hearth, watching Ros glance around as if she’d be able to decide if anything was in the way right now. There wasn’t much else to say, so Honey moved to sit down again. She figured Ros knew what she was doing, besides.

She assumed they were looking at the wards, now, and she nodded, slowly, admiring the golden threads that reminded her of fine sugar work. “Aye,” she agreed again, suddenly anxious to get downstairs to the kitchen, get to work. But this, here, was important for her work, too, even if it wasn’t the active thing.

“It looks pretty good, aye?” Honey looked at the hearth again, the larger void in the web that could be smaller, then back to Ros. “Can I touch it?” She asked with a soft smirk, aware that that was not something she usually asked permission for.
 

 She couldn't help laughing a little. "Please be gentle." she said, eyes wide, before she ended up grinning. Too easy, really. She waved her wand slowly, unraveling different sections, as they slowly turned colors. The unraveling diagnostic helped her check on the individual protections on the wards and would eventually lead her into the heart of it. With a little shimmer a pulsing stone was revealed. Dark and smooth, almost in the shape of a beating heart, hovering in the center of a seemingly endless amount of multicolored threads.

The threads themselves were attached to the stone, like veins, in that same glittering gold, before they branched off. Black for anti-apparition, a blood red alarm thread intermixed almost completely with a buttery yellow thread that seemed to lead back out to the door. A portkey. She wondered where it lead but decided she didn't actually want to know. Portkeys were monitored by the ministry and she'd rather not have that particular confirmation to leave at least a little room for plausible deniability.

She turned her attention towards the ward stone itself, noticing it definitely needed a little charge up. Preferably from Honey. "Here just... let your palm hover beneath it for a second." she instructed, glancing back at Honey. "The runes should glow in a second. Once they do you can touch it. Should feel a bit like... when your hand gets numb and you wake it up? Little pinpricks of feeling, really." she described. "It takes what it needs in levels of charge to be safe, so it doesn't take too much out of a witch or wizard in one go." darker wards did not have this safety feature, and could suck a wizard dry so fast he'd be dead before he knew it if he wasn't strong enough to withstand the drain.

"Once you charge it up a bit I can see how depleted it is and let you know what we need to do." she added, glancing back reassuringly.