it's funny how things never change in this old town [rory]

[Deleted]

Emmy was home. Well, not really home, since home was Scotland and London was not Scotland, but she was at least on the right side of the Atlantic Ocean. Finding her way to Diagon Alley hadn't been the easiest thing, but her publisher had given her directions on how to get from Muggle London into the Alley, and from there, it was smooth sailing...Sort of. There was still a lot to do, since she had to convert all of her dragots - and a fistful or two of miscellaneous Muggle money - into Galleons. The Alley was quiet, which wasn't surprising, since it was two days after Christmas and people were still probably...doing whatever it was people did after Christmas. (Emmy had been on a plane after Christmas, so she wasn't one to judge.) She was still getting used to the weather, which meant that she had a thick scarf wrapped around her neck. The wind seemed intent on changing that scenario, though, and after a brief struggle with the fabric, Emmy's dark blue scarf was ripped away and began drifting down the street.

@rory

[Deleted]

Rory was wandering around in Diagon Alley. Once more, he had a break from work and he didn't really know what else to do. A part of him was hoping that he would run into someone he knew here, but the usually busy street was almost empty. Besides that, a cold wind was blowing so anyone on the street was intent on their destination instead of chatting like they normally did. It wasn't a bad thing, it just meant that coming here to talk to people just wasn't going to happen. After walking around for a while, Rory was about to leave. There was no point being here anymore. Then a soft, dark blue scarf brushed against his arm, being carried by the wind. Rory grabbed it quickly and looked around for the owner. When he saw her, Rory stared for a second. "Emmy?" he breathed, sure that he was seeing things. She was in America, not London and even if she were in London, she didn't know a thing about magic. She couldn't possibly be here in Diagon Alley. Rory closed his eyes and rubbed them with his free hand, opening them to see her still standing there. His best friend. "Emmy?" Rory called hesitantly, hoping he wasn't wrong. That would definitely be strange. "I think this is yours," he added, walking towards her.

@emilia

[Deleted]

Emmy watched slightly dejectedly as her scarf began to drift down the road. As soon as it had been ripped off her neck, she had resigned herself to losing it forever, since she didn’t want to make herself look ridiculous by chasing it down. That was not the first impression she wanted to make on London. When Emmy looked up again, though, her scarf hadn’t disappeared. It was in the arms of someone who looked…familiar. Emmy. How did he know her name? It took Emmy a moment to see past the scruffy beard, but as soon as she did, her eyes lit up. “Rory?” That didn’t make sense! He was a No-Maj! How was he here? Emmy really didn’t understand what was happening, but Rory was the only person on this continent who would know her name. She sped up, walking towards her friend, who also had her scarf in his arms. “I – yes, that’s mine!” She said, Scottish brogue thickening in her surprise. “What are you doing here?” Emmy asked incredulously, taking the scarf from Rory. Suddenly, Emmy remembered something, and she reached up to touch her hair. “This is what it looks like.” She said shyly, realizing Rory had likely never seen her hair before, due to her childhood obsession with her beanie.

@rory

[Deleted]

Rory she said. That meant it had to be Emmy. It had to be. No one else would say his name that way. "Em," he answered with a smile, happy now that he was sure it was really her. But he was still confused. "What are you doing here in London? And ... here?" He gestured to the alley around them to show what he meant, even though she would probably know that. He laughed when she walked up to him, asking the same question. He shrugged a little, "Well I was bored at my apartment, so I decided to come out for a walk, see if I could run into someone I knew. I never dreamed I'd see you here." So he didn't really answer her question. Undoubtedly she was asking how he was here in a wizarding alley. Of course, there was only one possible answer: he was a wizard and she was a witch. He smiled when she seemed to get self conscious and played with her hair. "It's beautiful," he told her honestly. "Did you hide it from me for all those years on purpose?" he teased, really just unbelievably happy that she was here.

@emilie

[Deleted]

Rory seemed just as surprised to see her as she was to see him, and Emmy didn’t know what to do. Rory asked what she was doing in London, and on the magical side of it, no less. “I could ask the same of you, ya numpty!” Emmy exclaimed, half-ready to backhand Rory for keeping his magic from her. She had done the same, of course, but it still felt unfair. She was probably more at fault, given that she had traversed an ocean without so much of a whisper of it to Rory, but still. “You’re dodging the question, Roman.” Emmy said with a roll of her eyes. “And you know full well what I meant, so I don’t want to hear anymore half-truths.” Emmy crossed her arms across her chest and glared at him, feeling very much like she was seven years old again and demanding an answer as to why her best friend hadn’t visited the day before. Rory asked her about her hair, and Emmy shook her head. “Answer my question and maybe I’ll tell you.” Emmy said. She wasn’t going to budge until she figured out how Rory was in the wizarding side of the world when he was supposed to be a No-Maj.

@rory

[Deleted]

Rory rolled his eyes back at Emmy. She could be so one-sided sometimes. She was getting after him for not answering her question, but she didn't answer his either. Still, he knew that pointing that out wouldn't help at all. It was highly likely that an action like that would just make her want to squabble with him. It was easy for them to get distracted from real conversations because of small arguments they had. And he wanted a real conversation right now. He wanted to know what Emmy was doing in London. "I live here, Em. In London. It's perfectly logical for me to be wandering streets here," he argued despite himself. Then he got serious and answered her question. "I'm a wizard. I found out when I was eleven, but I wasn't supposed to tell anyone that wasn't magical. You ... are you a witch?" He was pretty sure she was; why else would she be here? But he still had to ask the question. He needed to hear her tell him. "You going to answer me now? It's your turn you know." Not that that meant she'd answer him. He knew Emmy well enough to know that she would do exactly what she wanted, when she wanted to.

@emilia

[Deleted]

Rory lived in London now. Right, she knew that. He had told her. Why hadn’t she come to visit him? Well, that was an easy question to answer, once Emmy thought about it. It was so much easier to lie – not lie, really, but to hide part of herself from him – when there was space between them. And now there wasn’t any space between them, and there was also nothing left to hide. The gravity of the situation was beginning to make Emmy feel a little dizzy, and slightly sick. She had spent the past two decades with Rory as her friend, and until now, neither of them had been entirely honest with each other. And that was wrong. “Yeah. Yeah, I am.” Emmy said slowly when Rory asked her if she was a witch. She answered him easily, because she just…couldn’t even think of a lie, really. Without warning, Emmy threw her arms around Rory’s shoulders, squeezing him close to her. “I can’t believe you’re here.” The joy of being back with her best friend – a title Rory still held despite how long it had been since they’d seen each other – was beginning to eclipse the confusion and the worry, and Emmy pulled back from the hug with a smile. “You should show me around.” If wizarding London really was Rory’s stomping ground, he ought to have quite a few stories for her. She could get back to her to-do list later.

@rory

[Deleted]

Rory couldn't help but laugh quietly when she admitted that she was a witch. So they both had magic and they both kept it from the other because they weren't allowed to tell muggles. Ironic. That's what their situation was and Rory found it funny, in a sad sort of way. Keeping the fact that he was a wizard a secret from Emmy was one of the hardest things he'd ever done. At least he didn't have to keep on lying to her. When she moved closer and hugged him, Rory wrapped his arms around her waist, hugging her tightly. He missed her. Even though they kept in contact over the years, he missed spending real time with her. "That makes no sense, Em." He teased lightly. "You knew I was in London. I'm the one who should be in shock right now." And he was. The fact that he was hugging Emmy, that she was so close to him. A part of him wondered if he was simply dreaming it all up. The hug ended and Rory smiled at her suggestion. "Yeah, I'll show you around. What do you want to see first, magical London or non-magical London?" He figured she'd want to start where they were, but Rory was fine either way. He'd give her the choice. Besides, they'd probably just end up talking about the last few years instead of the things around them anyway.

@emilia

[Deleted]

“I knew you were in London, but I didn’t know you’d be on this side of it.” Emmy corrected him. It was the same as if there had been a secret black market in London and she had found Rory there – she knew he was in the city, but it was a whole different level of shocking to see him in that part of the city. And Rory was probably in shock, too, and just not showing it. There was no way not to be shocked in this situation, and Emmy was pretty sure that it was going to take her days – weeks, even – for the reality of this to sink in. Spending time with Rory would help that, though, she hoped. Rory asked her which side of London she wanted to see first, and Emmy responded quickly. “Magical, of course!” She could ask just about anyone to show her the Muggle side of London, and there were several businesses solely for the purpose of showing people around the city. The wizarding side didn’t have that sort of thing, at least to Emmy’s knowledge. And this way they could both talk about magic and their magical schooling without having to dance around words or anything of the sort. Normally Emmy wasn’t the squealing type, but she was just about ready to squeal with excitement at this whole situation.

@rory

[Deleted]

Rory shrugged. It wasn't really a surprise that Emmy hadn't expected to see him here, so why keep talking about it. After all, now that she was in London with him, he wanted to talk to her about real things, especially considering the fact that she was a witch. He could hardly believe they both joined the magical community. She said she wanted him to show her around magical London and Rory grabbed her hand, pulling her further down the Alley. He wasn't exactly sure what he was supposed to show her. "Did you know you were a witch when we met?" He asked impulsively. Then he gestured to Gringotts. "There's Gringotts. It's the wizarding bank here in London, run by goblins." He wasn't sure what exactly she'd be interested in, but he might as well start there. Honestly, he didn't care what they did. He was too excited to be spending time with his best friend.

@emilia

[Deleted]

Emmy shook her head vehemently when Rory asked her if she had known she was a witch when the two of them had first met. “I’m No-Maj-born.” She explained. “So I didn’t figure out until I was eleven and someone came to explain magic to me so that I could go to school.” Emmy was afraid of what answer she would get if she returned the question, but her curiosity was going to get the better of her anyways, so it was better to ask now rather than later. “You?” Maybe Rory’s deceased mother was a witch, and that was why they hadn’t talked much about her? That made sense, but it also made sense that a little kid wouldn’t want to talk about something traumatic like their parent dying.

“I need to go there sometime.” Emmy said when Rory showed her Gringotts. “Have you ever seen a dragot?” She asked, already reaching into her pocket to pull out one of the silver octagonal coins. “You should tell me about your currency system.” Emmy prompted. She knew that Galleons were the largest denomination of currency, but the different conversions still befuddled her.

@rory

[Deleted]

No-maj? Ohhhh ... that must be what Americans called muggles. Rory gave a small smile when she answered his question. He was glad that their friendship hadn't started with such a big secret. "Me neither. Here we call them muggles, but about the same thing happened when I turned eleven. Then I went to Hogwarts." He wasn't sure if she wanted to know all that, but explaining it felt good. Like a weight was lifted off his chest at the release of knowledge to her. 

"That's understandable," Rory teased when she said that she needed to go to Gringotts. She showed him a weird coin and Rory shook his head, "No,"he told her, reaching forward to see if she'd let him take it so he could see it better. He explained the currency system to her, pulling some coins out to show her as he explained. Then he asked, "Did that help at all?" 

@emilia

[Deleted]

Rory explained that they called No-Majs Muggles in Britain, and Emmy raised her eyebrows. No-Maj was so much more descriptive, in her opinion – No-Maj meant no magic. Muggle sounded like someone who would jump out of an alley and mugged you. “Does Hogwarts have houses?” Emmy asked. She was fairly certain that Hogwarts had been mentioned in one of her magical history classes, but she hadn’t ever paid much attention in that class, anyways. “We had four at Ilvermorny. Three of them wanted me.” Emmy couldn’t help but boast.

Emmy willingly relinquished the dragot when Rory reached for it, and listened when he explained the currency system. “That’s a lot of numbers to remember.” She muttered unhappily. “I’m going to take you with me when I go shopping.” Emmy declared. “So if I forget the conversion rate you can just tell me!” And she wanted an excuse to spend more time with Rory, now that they were on the same continent and everything.

@rory

[Deleted]

Emmy asked if Hogwarts had houses and Rory was about to explain when she started telling her that she did at Ilvermony. Huh. Their sorting process must be a bit different, but that was to be expected, right? He smiled at how proud she seemed. "Yes, there are houses at Hogwarts, but they don't choose you," he started, hesitating a little. She was probably going to think this was weird. "We get sorted by a hat into one of the houses. But which one of the three did you choose? Or can you be in three at once?" That didn't really make sense to him, but Rory was trying to keep an open mind. Different schools did different things.

Rory chuckled at Emmy's obvious discomfort with his money and shrugged at her decision to take him along. "That's fine with me," he told her simply. He wasn't too big a fan of shopping, but he wanted to spend time with Emmy. It had been way too long since the last time they did things together and he was going to take advantage of this opportunity as much as possible. "Do you need to shop now?" His voice was curious.

@emilia

[Deleted]

Rory said that there were indeed houses at Hogwarts, but that they didn’t choose the students – rather, they had a hat that put them into specific houses. “Most people only get chosen by one house in the first place.” She thought that was worth mentioning. “It’s not uncommon to be chosen by two, and quite a bit rarer to be chosen by three. I’ve never met anyone who was chosen by all four.” Emmy knew Rory didn’t want this much explanation to her answer, but she wanted him to appreciate the gravity of the situation. “I chose Thunderbird. The house of adventurers.” She had always been dragging Rory into some kind of trouble or another when they were kids, so Emmy didn’t think he’d be particularly surprised by that decision. “The only house that didn’t want me was the house of the healers and the heart. Pukwudgie.” She added, once again overexplaining. “What about you? What house were you in?” She didn’t know anything about the four Hogwarts houses, so maybe Rory would return her favor by overexplaining.

Emmy beamed at her best friend when he agreed that he’d go shopping with him. He asked if she needed to shop now, and the answer was probably yes, but Emmy had been waiting until the last possible moment to convert all of her dragots, so she had them all in a huge bag under her bed. Which wasn’t the safest way to store money, but Emmy wasn’t sure she liked being safe. “No, I’m good for now. And I only have these anyways.” She said, pulling out a half a handful of dragots and opening her palm to show them to Rory. Just as she was presenting the coins to her friend, though, a man ran past, snatching the octagonal coins from Emmy. She blinked once, stunned, before shouting, “After that thief!”

@rory