[Hogs Head] A Long Day

[Ilea McGregor]

For Ilea, the day started out like any normal day for her. Getting up at the break of dawn, having a healthy breakfast for a fairly active young woman, then a shower to freshen up and then get dressed for work. It doesn't seem like much, but to her it was. It meant a great deal for her although some would find it just easier to wake up and jump in the shower and go, not for Ilea. After putting her clothes on, being that she was a Hit witch for the Ministry of Magic, she didn't have to wear a uniform. Something like undercover work was what she did. The young vivacious woman was filled of energy beyond belief, a smile was pursed upon her lips as she set out for work earlier that morning. The sun was just caressing the top of the trees while she walked, with her hands in the pockets of her black trench coat, down the narrow side walk from her home to work. There was no doubt in Ilea's mind that today was going to be a great day and the thought of finishing her paperwork was a great thought. The streets were beginning to fill with pedestrians roaming around like they did every day, shopping and things of that sort. Eh, it was still a Friday morning and everyone liked to get things early before it really got crowded.

Especially by the afternoon. It was mad trying to get through the crowd during that time, even worse when your out on break grabbing a bite to eat and trying to make it back to work on time. Ha ha, that's happened to Ilea a couple of times. Sometimes you win some and lose some, though some just had to make it through the day no matter what. People like her for that matter. So, it was going to be a great day and nothing was going to change that right? Wrong.. The moment Ilea set foot onto the foundation of which the Ministry had set, was the moment that she was dragged in by the arm by a fellow Hit wizard. From then on, the day had went straight into a downward spiral heading for disaster. Upon entering her office as well as being informed about a criminal that she had been after for quite some time had just resurfaced, Ilea knew that her hopes for a good day had just hit rock bottom. There was no way that she could ever regain hope in it becoming better, not after finding out that the criminal was on the prowl again. Working through the stacks of paperwork that had been filed against the alleged criminal, Ilea sorted through the recent accusations and was determined to bring the guy to justice.

Even though she may have spent only a few minutes in her office, she was out the door again, but this time on a hunt for this guy. She wasn't out to play hide and seek, she was out on the hunt. Ilea used her resources to track the guy down of whom she was searching for. Hours upon hours had passed, searching through every home and business in town. The search continued well passed lunch which didn't bother her very much, she was doing her job and that was the important thing. Throughout the day, Ilea watched how the time passed by glancing up at the sky every now and then. The colors would change to warmer colors which indicated evening was drawing closer and another day was spent on her dedication of finding the guy. The few spuratic moments of the wind blowing through each place, she and her partner looked high and low. From Diagon Alley to Knockturn Alley and every place in between. Was the day ever going to end for her? Probably not. In the end, her determination paid off. Not too far from where she was, the criminal had taken shelter in the Shrieking shack of all places. How simple could it be? How cautious should she be?

Being the kind of person she was, Ilea took all necessary precautions of disarming the charms that could possibly hurt her or her partner. With a simple twist of the knob, she used her foot to kick open the door and brought the guy to his feet. A few spells were thrown against the other, but in the end the criminal was caught. With a quick trip to Azkaban placing the guy behind bars, Ilea's day ended and even still it headed through a spiral of destruction. Heading back to her office, she had quickly made a quick note on her desk to come in to work and finish the paper work in the morning. With that, she apparated out of her office and into the shadowed corner beside the Ministry and the building that sat beside it. "Ohhh, What a long day." Ilea said to herself with a sigh of relief, that finally the person she has been looking for is now put away. However, her day still wasn't over yet. She was ready to go home. Unfortunately for her, as soon as she started to walk down the cobblestone road.. It began to rain and not a gentle rain either. The droplets were the size of a quarter. Thunder began to echo through the little village of Hogsmeade.

Could this day get any worse than what it was? Unlikely. Throwing her hood up over her head, she strolled through the pouring rain. Gusts of winds blew through as she could hear the citizens of Hogwarts and Hogsmeade scattered voices through the area of which she walked. Of course, weather like this always made her think of the good times she had when she was even younger than what she was at this point. Running and dancing through the rain, getting wet just to feel the cool droplets of water caress her face as it rolled down her cheek to her chin and fall hitting the ground. The day she was caught dancing in the rain was a day she would never forget. Now that she thought about it, she remembered how it was raining like it was now. Only then, she was still in school and on the prowl for a place to dine and then it started raining. Her mind played the thought through like a movie, a strand of film on a roller and a white background that showed the picture clearly. She danced with her hood of her cloak off of her head and was joined by none other than her ex boyfriend Robert Ward, well she called him Robbie for short like every one else. Just simplifying a name.

A smile creased her lips as she stopped in her footsteps thinking about him, the way he made her feel and how things were between them then. It was an unfortunate thing that they broke up because she loved him very much. Was it puppy love? No. It wasn't, at least not for her. She truly loved him and gave him her all when they were together. When he got sick, which was very seldom as far as she knew, she took care of him. Bringing him soup and making sure that he was comfortable and stayed with him until he was better. Being bumped by another person trying to get out of the rain, Ilea blinked her eyes with the thought of Robbie still on her mind, she realized that she was standing in the rain soaked head to shoe in water. With a quick glance, her brown eyes followed the street over to a building so familiar with memories of her past. A small breath of air was released, sadly, she knew Robbie was never coming back. As she turned taking a couple of steps and stopped, deciding whether or not she wanted to go into the scraggly old smelly place again. Tilting her head on a slant to glance up at the sky, well it beat standing in the rain.

Shifting her gaze back on the little pub called the Hogs Head, Ilea made her way across the street and up the stairs of the place. Her hand placed upon the knob of the wooden door, which felt like it was slimy or greasy from the mixture of oils of hands that were placed upon it before hers. An uneasy sigh escaped as she turned the knob giving the door a gentle push open, Ilea disappeared into the pub shutting the door behind her. The air was stale with the smell of smoke, must and mold. The tables didn't even look like they were cleaned seeing that there were still stains of spilled alcohol on them. Ilea swayed in and out through the crowd of people who stood before the bar, she was trying to get through to find a place to sit, however, there wasn't any place at the bar to be seated. So Ilea glanced out among the tables and noticed a little place in the back next to the window. She would order first before going back there, she needed a drink, something strong and soothing. After a few moments, she was able to move through a lesser crowd and ordered a fire whiskey. Something she hasn't had in a long time. The bartender turned to fix her drink only to return moments later with the drink she had requested.

Ahh, now to get to the place in back. With another glance back at the chosen table, she noticed it was still unoccupied, thankfully. Raising her glass up just enough so that she could move passed people without the drink spilling on them, or even more so on her. The good thing about this place was that, even with her uniform on, it was hidden beneath her cloak so it made her not quite so stand out-ish. Moving on back to the table of her choice, she kicked the chair out with her foot and took a drink of the fire whiskey as it trickled down her throat, warming her insides that left a chill to run up her spine. Without doing anything further, Ilea sat down in the chair and leaned back putting her feet up on the other chair. It was time for a bit of relaxation and of course, she deserved it to some extent. Although, while she sat there, the thought of Robbie was still coursing through her mind, wondering how he was doing and what he was up to nowadays. It has been a long time since she's seen him and hasn't heard from him since their break up. She has seen him around and he has grown to be very good looking but, she doesn't know how his personality would be after having not been around him in so long.

Ilea's eyes strayed from the glass in front of her that was headed towards her mouth anyway, she looked out the window beside her. She took another drink and stared out the window into the rain.

[Trisha Baldwin]

[[ monster of a post! i love it ]]

Unlike Ilea’s, Trisha’s day had been uneventful and tedious. Her first night in Hogsmeade had been an interesting one, spending most of it with either William or Warren in the Hog’s Head. She had to admit she felt special, though she wondered if Warren had only been nice to her because she was a paying costumer. She hoped not, because then her impression of his character would have been so far off the mark she would have needed to reintroduce herself to him to start all over again. She had taken a room there too. It had smelt a bit funny at first, musty and stale, but she had opened the window [[ which took some doing, she’d have you know ]] and let the cold December night air into the room.

Trish functioned on very few hours of sleep. She did not know why this was, it had just always been. As she went down the next morning Trish thought about how often she and her friends at Hogwarts had stayed up late doing work together. Rose had agreed to take Ancient Runes with Trish just so that she would not have to do the homework by herself. She made a note to visit Rose on her return to London, the two had not gotten together for a number of weeks. When she reached the pub, Trish noticed, with much amusement, that the people who were there had been in the same places the night before, when she had left for bed.

It was still early and Trish wondered what other shops would be open at this time. With her bright blue coat on, she set of into the dark street in search of breakfast and something to do. Finding a very quaint little restaurant Trish breakfasted there before making her way up to the school. She was certain that the students would be having breakfast already. She arrived at Hogwarts and ran into her old Muggle Studies teacher, who made her laugh as ever. They ended up speaking for so long that she missed her chance to visit with Jac. She tired again twice more that day but both times she got turned around and lost. The walls must have moved.

Between visits to Hogwarts, Trish mulled around Hogsmeade, going into different stores and taking her time with everything. This was the reason she had left London, here she could take her time and she didn’t have to worry about anything. Evening came quickly this end of the world and Trish made her way back to the Hog’s Head quickly, managing to get in before it began to pour. Doris had laughed as Trish had closed the door and the first drops of rain could be heard tapping against the window. “Fantastic timing, deary,” she had chuckled before throwing down her cards and winning the round.

Shaking her head, Trish weaved through the people to the bar where Warren seemed to have his hands full. Trish began talking with him but when a drenched woman ordered a fire whiskey, Trish’s train of thought was derailed. Warren didn’t seem particularly interested in what she had to say at any rate so taking the hint, Trish moved through the crowds again, going past the three witches who were playing cards and smiling at them, and came to where the woman was sitting, feet up and eyes on the window. There were four wizards occupying the table next to the woman’s table and two empty chairs. Two man were making their way towards them and Trish quickly pulled one chair to the woman’s table, sitting on it. The man whose chair she had nicked didn’t realise it so sat down, falling to the floor. The other men at the table laughed loudly, one accusing him of having drunk to much.

Trish didn’t turn to watch that, she was being intuitive and nosy, in true reporter style. “Hard day?” she offered with a friendly smile. It was then that Edith tapped Trish on the shoulder and gave the young witch her tall flame red and orange drink. “Thanks Eddie,” Trish said to the tall thin woman as the witch turned and walked away. Trish had learnt that Edith wasn’t one of many words other then slanders towards any who dared take her money [[ or whatever they used as currency ]] in their card game. Taking a sip of her drink, Trish fixed her ice blue eyes on the drenched woman again and smiled.