in the shadows [peggy]

[JOHN ELLIOT CLARK]

Late February 2028

Jack scrubbed absently on a particularly sticky spot on the counter, wishing the evening would come to an abrupt end. Hardly anyone had been in this afternoon and evening, and Jack had much better things to do. For example, he had to stew on the offering from HR records, figure out how to drop out of LIFE, and decide if the flat in Hogsmeade was worth keeping. Sure, London would probably be ideal in terms of things going on, but there were a few factors that made that extraordinarily unappetising. First, it was in England. Second, it was expensive as hell. And third, HR records was based in Leeds - also England, but slightly less shit as it was still the north.

With a sigh, Jack discarded the towel into the sink, and crossed his arms. He considered putting an order in with the kitchen for some chips - his stomach had been groaning uncomfortably for the past hour. He mussed his hair as he considered what to do with the hour remaining on his shift. Perhaps he could skive off early - Merlin knew it didn't matter how he behaved, as he had plans to leave in the next few weeks. Well, semi-concrete plans at least. Were they plans if in reality, Jack had no idea what he was doing with himself?

Jack was brought back to reality with a start as someone tottered up to the bar. He'd never seen her around before, and she looked too young for a drink. But hell, who was he to question? Jack raised a brow at her, before leaning on the bar. "What can I get ye?"

Peggy Duncan

[Peggy Duncan]

A hungry Peggy was a Peggy on a mission. Struck with a sudden childhood memory turned into sense of nostalgia, she had one thing on her mind all day - hot chippies - and a classmate had recommended Flobberworm & Lettuce on campus as a quick fix for her hankering.

Entering the pub, she sang out a little “Ding dong!” to alert staff to her presence which was something passed on to her from her dad as a child. He always announced an entrance into a building with a ding dong, even if it was a shop front with an actual bell on it that could do the dinging for him.

She walked up to the bar and greeted the bartender cheerfully. “‘Allo!” Peggy hadn’t actually visited this particular establishment before, because she didn’t really frequent pubs as she wasn’t old enough to drink. And even if she were old enough to drink, the desire to do so hadn’t hit her yet. She’d never really considered going into a pub just to order food, so the concept was exciting and now here she was!

The young man behind the bar asked what he could get her, which was a fantastic question, and the mousey brunette didn’t waste any time. “Can you tell me how many chips come in a bowl - wait - a large bowl of chips?” she asked, smiling politely. It probably wouldn’t matter what the answer was as she would still want them, but it would be good to have expectations so she could know what she was in for!

JOHN ELLIOT CLARK

[JOHN ELLIOT CLARK]

A whirlwind of sound broke the low buzz of the bar as a girl in explosive colour entered. Jack was completely thrown by the look of her, and by the way she announced herself like a bell. There wasn't a bell over the pub door, but it was in direct view of the bar. He'd seen her come in. Mystified, Jack watched as the girl tottered over to him, and greeted him cheerfully. Jack was at a loss for words for a long moment, but managed to compose himself and asked her what she'd like.

It was almost as if she had read his mind - he had, after all, been thinking about ordering chips and his stomach gurgled uncomfortably as he considered it again. He tilted his head as he appraised her, frowning. Jack had never thought of the number of chips in a bowl. "Er," he started, trying and failing to buy himself time as he mentally tripped over all the questions he wanted to ask her. Why did she dress so aggressively? Why did she announce herself when he could clearly see she was there? Why did she look like she'd wandered in here almost by accident? "Maybe er... forty?" Jack hedged, not even sure himself of how many chips came in a bowl or even a large bowl. "Enough to satisfy between meals, sure," he added after a moment. "You want some?"

Peggy Duncan

[Peggy Duncan]

Forty was an excellent estimate for the amount of chips in a large serving. Peggy was happy with that. Four was one of Peggy’s favourite numbers, and she did prefer even numbers too, so really this was working out just great.

“Brilliant! Yes please!” she replied simply, giving a very affirming nod. But then she paused abruptly and gasped inwards, sticking a finger parallel to the sky like a revelation that she had forgotten something critical. “Oh! And do you know what condiments come with them? If they’re a simple salted or chicken salted then I usually just have vinegar and tomato sauce. But! If they’re like nice rosemary seasoning or a beer batter or something like that then I think I’d like gravy. Oh - do you have gravy?”

Peggy halted just enough to take a breath, but not long enough for the poor bartender to get a word in edgeways. “Wait. What shape are the chips? Are they shoestring, crinkle cut or chunky steak cut chips?” she listed off several different variations of hot chips using her fingers like she was counting. “If they’re shoestring or crinkle cut then I’ll just have tomato sauce, even if they’re rosemary salted.”

She generally wasn’t the best at picking up on social cues and so Peggy hadn’t really clocked if the guy was looking at her like she’d just landed down from outer space. She placed her palms flat on the bar and took a moment to gaze around the establishment before snapping her attention back to him and smiling, lips pressed together and eyes wide and bright. “And a lemonade too, please. Thank you!”

JOHN ELLIOT CLARK

[JOHN ELLIOT CLARK]

Jack was completely floored by the oddness of the girl before him. He'd never seen her around before, though the obvious age difference between them could explain that. He surveyed her silently for a moment before offering to put the order of chips in, and estimating that there were about forty odd in there. She gasped and Jack's stomach dropped. He wondered if she was going to insist that he count the chips to confirm the size of the portion. "Er..." said Jack, completely nonplussed. "What's chicken salt?" It actually sounded sort of nice. Even if Jack did have a bit of a sweet tooth, he could always appreciate a nice salty chip.

"I think they're just regular," Jack offered unhelpfully. "I could ask. But I think we just have that gravy that's freeze dried, you know? Since they got human cooks in for this place they're sort of shit," Jack added with a shrug. "They're crinkle cut," he added, much more helpfully. "Listen, I can give you mayo, mustard, brown sauce, vinegar and ketchup. And you can decide what you like," Jack offered. He tapped the screen, placing the order with the chefs and added a lemonade at her behest. "That's six sickles," he said, glancing over at her. "How did you come to be such a connoisseur of chips?" asked Jack mildly.

Peggy Duncan

[Peggy Duncan]

Peggy remained silent for long enough to let the bartender speak, waiting eagerly for his confirmation on what specific kind of chip she would be enjoying today. He asked her what chicken salt was and she didn’t hesitate to respond with utmost confidence “It’s salt, but with chicken in it.” She gave a nod as if an expert on the matter, even though her answer wasn’t at all accurate. There was definitely no actual chicken in chicken salt.

He told her that the seasonings were regular and Peggy was absolutely fine with that. Regular was a classic tried and true. You couldn’t go wrong with regular! He advised her that the cooks in the kitchen were human but that didn’t bother her because her own mum was a muggle who made the best meals she’d ever eaten in her life, and unbeknownst to her, her mother probably used gravy powder too and she just hadn’t noticed, or cared to ask the difference. Then it was disclosed that the chips themselves were crinkle cut and Peggy clapped her hands together a couple of times enthusiastically. Her favourite!!

Listing off all of the condiments available to her, Peggy was grinning ear to ear. “Brilliant! So many options!” she exclaimed. She took a neon green furry coin purse out of her pocket and took a moment to clumsily count out six sickles worth of coins before placing them down on the countertop.

Once the transaction had occurred, the teen climbed up on a barstool to take a seat right there at the bar right in front of the cash register. It was the kind of chaotic behaviour you’d only expect from the kind of person who goes and sits right next to the only other individual in an entirely empty movie theatre. When he asked her how she became an aficionado of chips, she took it almost like a compliment. Tilting her head to the side a little she smiled dreamily. “We grow a lot of potatoes back home. So we eat them in chips form all the time.” Anyone receiving this knowledge might assume that Peggy grew up on a farm or something, and not just in the suburbs of Liverpool with epic doomsday preppers for parents who had an entirely self-sustaining set up growing vegetables and hoarding canned goods. “Do you go to school here?” she asked suddenly changing the subject. She hadn’t seen him before but then again she kept to herself mostly, and certainly hadn’t been paid attention by any older students other than Lulu in the past.

JOHN ELLIOT CLARK

[JOHN ELLIOT CLARK]

Jack was still sceptical about the idea of chicken salt, but made a note to mention it to the chefs to see if they'd ever heard of it. Maybe it was better than he'd expected. Chicken was nice, after all. Especially a spatchcock as part of a Sunday Roast. Merlin, it had been ages since he'd had one. The Three Broomsticks didn't do meal type food, and Jack was spending most of his time either here pretending to revise or in Hogsmeade. That left little time for journeys to various pubs. Jack offered a whole list of condiments that he could give the girl, and she seemed delighted at the prospect. Jack pursed his lips at the furry green coin purse, but said nothing, sliding the sickles instead into the till.

It was her numerous questions and interrogating nature that led Jack to pose his question. He'd never heard of someone so interested in chips before. Sure, there was the odd person who preferred thick cut to thin cut, but the sheer number of questions and options she had asked had thrown Jack. She offered Jack a dreamy smile before answering, which was nearly as alarming as her inquisition. "Ah, that's nice. I've never grown a thing," said Jack with a shrug. "Did you grow other stuff as well? Or did your family subsist only on spuds?" he asked. "Er, yes. Studying hit wizarding, though it's kind of shit. Oh shit, sorry, am I allowed to swear in front of you?" Jack grimaced. "I assume you study here too," he added.

Peggy Duncan

[Peggy Duncan]

Peggy swivelled side to side on her bar stool as the bartender spoke to her. It wasn’t very often that people engaged her in this much conversation, especially not in the context of an exchanging of money for goods and/or services situation like this one so maybe the guy was really bored or something because the pub was empty so there was that.

“We grew all sorts of things besides potatoes. Turnips, tomatoes, corn…” she trailed off and shrugged. “But potatoes is my favourite.” Obviously. “It’s not that hard really, you could do it if you wanted to!” She assured him.

When he told her that he was studying hit wizarding and followed it with the word shit, Peggy made a concerted effort not to change her facial expression to show her immediate surprise that he’d used that kind of language in his workplace. That was quite peculiar, so she kept a straight face except her eyes did pop a little which would be a giveaway to her reaction if someone observant enough were to notice. She ratcheted it back down with a smile announcing; “Oh that’s OK. I’m sixteen so I’m basically almost an adult” and nodded matter-of-factly. Peggy could handle a curse word or two, although she’d be hesitant to say one herself.

“I’m doing my NEWTS. I’m going to be an Astronomer one day,” she told him serenely. After a brief pause, she tapped her fingers on the bartop in a morse code-like rhythm as she pondered his area of study. “Hit wizarding… Is that very dangerous, then?”


JOHN ELLIOT CLARK

[JOHN ELLIOT CLARK]

Jack was not typically the sort of person to engage in small talk. Usually, he preferred to muse in his own thoughts, tapping out a rhythm with his fingers as he did so. But Peggy was intriguing - in a way that he’d never met anyone quite as out there as she was. Their interaction was stirring the muses in his mind, a beat building itself up, a riff dangling just before her. ”I don’t really do so well with the outdoors and sunshine,” Jack reasoned, tilting his head at Peggy. ”The milky Scottish skin doesn’t like it,” he added with a smirk. Besides, he wanted callused fingers from guitar strings, not from field work.

Peggy seemed taken aback by his cursing, and Jack nearly let slip another, but he managed to wrangle it in. ”Sixteen,” he echoed, appraising her. ”Just wait til next year when you can farm those potatoes with magic,” said Jack. She seemed quite innocent, especially by the way she was twirling from side to side on her bar stool. Had Jack been in her place, the motion would have made him sick all over the counter. Instead of lingering on that unpleasant thought, Jack asked if Peggy was studying here.

”Better astronomy than astrology,” said Jack with a nod. ”Do you have any particular interests in the field? Any stars that really speak to you?” asked Jack, expecting a long winded answer about various different cosmic objects that he had no idea about, but he found himself rather interested in what she had to say. There was something innocent about Peggy, something that Jack hadn’t seen in a very long time. There was hope in her gaze.

Peggy Duncan

[Peggy Duncan]

Peggy's eyes sparkled with enthusiasm as the bartender mentioned farming potatoes with magic. She leaned forward, resting her elbows on the bar, and said with a dreamy smile, "Oh, I can't wait for that! Imagine, just a flick of the wand and potatoes sprout from the ground like magic! It's going to be amazing!" 17 was not too far away, and now this young man had given her something else to daydream about until then.

As he shifted the conversation towards astronomy, Peggy's smile widened even further. Her eyes lit up as she gazed into the imaginary vastness of the night sky that was actually just the ceiling of the pub. "Stars that speak to me? Oh, absolutely! Well, there's Orion, of course. Such a mighty and majestic constellation, it always makes me feel like I can conquer anything. And then there's the Pleiades, the Seven Sisters. They seem so delicate and ethereal, like shimmering jewels hanging in the heavens."

She paused for a moment, tapping her fingers on the bar again, lost in her thoughts. "But my absolute favourite has to be the North Star, Polaris. It's a constant guide, you know? No matter where you are, you can always find your way home with Polaris. It's like a beacon of hope in the night, reminding us that even in the darkest times, there's a light that will lead us back."

Peggy's voice trailed off, and she blinked, realizing she had gotten carried away with her celestial ramblings. She blushed slightly and clasped her hands together. "Sorry, I tend to get a bit carried away when it comes to stars. It's just... they hold so much wonder and mystery, you know?” It was also one of the few subjects in the world she really knew much about, so it was easy to go on and on.

She glanced at him curiosity. "Did you know that every every atom in your body came from a star that exploded?"

JOHN ELLIOT CLARK