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last online May 2, 2024 17:01:00 GMT -7
WIZARDING ADULT
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Oct 22, 2017 21:25:25 GMT -7
Post by honey satheesh varma on Oct 22, 2017 21:25:25 GMT -7
Honey hadn’t seen the first team of Mediwizards bringing in the victims to the hospital, but she hadn’t needed to. Finding as much room for the casualties of the dual explosions of the Durmstrang Ship and the Beauxbatons Carriage as they needed on the wards must have been a challenge, but she was afraid to look and see for herself. Like the Healers, she, too, was working late into the night; she hadn’t had the heart to close the tearoom to those in need of it, especially as family members streamed in from across Europe.
By the second day after the attack, they knew that it had been an act of terror from a French group. No one seemed to need a newspaper to tell them the latest; it was on everyone’s lips, in every possible language. Un acte de terreur. En handling av terror. Akt na terror. The message was universal, and Honey found herself consoling everyone from a mother from Sweden to a grandfather from Spain, providing cups of tea and whatever support she could. Where she had to, she would mime until they understood that their relations would be safe in the care of the Healers there. No one seemed “foreign” to one another anymore; they were all human and all trying to get by.
By that third night, it had been a long few days. So much, Honey thought, for the quiet about which she had told Ophelia. Emotionally and physically drained, she had nearly cried, herself, a few times, too. She hadn’t had to beg her employees to take extra shifts; they had done it without complaint. Everyone had been mobilizing, and she had finally made the decision that it was time to shift back to the tearoom’s ordinary operating hours.
It was, then, with every intention of closing up for the night that she heard a set of footsteps approaching.
Without hesitation, Honey spoke. “We are open,” she stated, tired but not about to turn anyone away. “Can I help you?”
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last online May 5, 2024 23:47:35 GMT -7
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Nov 9, 2017 21:54:57 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Nov 9, 2017 21:54:57 GMT -7
It was... incredible. No, not incredible. That sounded too positive. The sheer amount of destruction and chaos Elaine had invoked had been left Nico in a state of shock and awe. And she had no doubt it had been Elaine and her band of misfits. As if she hadn't agreed to be one of them. She had, she couldn't deny, because the power that girl had exuded had been so enticing. She had so much potential, it had practically glowed in her skin, but she was wasting it all on, what, some grand gesture to remind Britain's wizarding world that she was still around? It didn't make a lot of sense to Nico, but there had to be some method to her madness. She was still in hiding and the government had no idea where she was. It didn't seem as if they were looking for her anyway, Elaine had made sure to cover her tracks on this one. Everyone believed that it had been some terror plot by some underground group but she knew the truth. There were other's that knew the truth too but they were smart enough to keep quiet about it.
Nico was morbid enough to go and see it. She'd waited a few days after to go to St. Mungo's and get a glimpse of what was going on, but she had gone and had devised the story that she'd been there because her cousin was having a baby. She wasn't able to get off of the first floor but she had watched as parent after parent of lost child came in with panic and fear, weariness and hope written across their faces. Nico watched from the corner of her eye or buried her face in a cup of tea and tried to listen in to their conversations. Most of them were bad, some parents had no hope and knew their children were lost. Some of them were under delusions fueled by fear. It was tragic. Nico didn't condone it but she understood that they were just kids. What was the use for this in Elaine's plan for domination?
It had been a little while now since she'd arrived. No one had bothered her again because of the havoc that persisted. It was a hospital after all, someone was always hurting. Her tea had ran out long ago and she didn't know when she was going to leave so before they closed, she wanted to get more. She stood up and walked towards the little tea shop. As soon as she reached the doorway, she heard the sound of someone's voice ring out. "Um, yes, I wanted to see if I could get more of that fruit tea you have," she spoke cautiously as she looked around and then spotted a young woman. She sounded tired. It was possible she was about to close up. "Or if you're closing..." Tag; honey satheesh varma
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last online May 2, 2024 17:01:00 GMT -7
WIZARDING ADULT
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Nov 10, 2017 18:48:49 GMT -7
Post by honey satheesh varma on Nov 10, 2017 18:48:49 GMT -7
“Um, yes, I wanted to see if I could get more of that fruit tea you have.”
It was a customer whom she had served earlier in the day, Honey realized, who had returned to the tearoom. She recognized the woman by her voice and by her mention of the fruit tea. As tired as she was, it was nice to hear that someone had enjoyed the tea so much as to ask for it specifically.
“Or if you're closing…”
“No, no. I don't mind at all,” Honey assured her, shaking her head and returning to her place behind the counter. It was late; the woman probably needed another cup of tea to keep going, and where else was she supposed to get it unless she went out into Muggle London? “Yours was the lemon tea, wasn't it?” Honey asked as she tried to recall. Running on such little sleep, the orders blurred together somewhat, though the “fruit tea” comment stood out. It must have been the lemon tea… Or had it been the raspberry?
@nicolette
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last online May 5, 2024 23:47:35 GMT -7
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Nov 17, 2017 2:11:59 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Nov 17, 2017 2:11:59 GMT -7
When she'd first arrived, she'd like the energy of the shop. Everything was tidy and in its place. The little shop had a fresh and comfortable feel to it and she felt that a lot of people really liked the shop, so she did too. She'd had no qualms about ordering tea and knew that whatever she ordered would be something good. The lemon tea had been a proper tea, it fit her very well and it was perfectly sweet enough for her. She really did want more of it and should have felt worse than she did when she continued into the store when the woman waived off her initial courtesy. That was good customer service, going above and beyond. "Yes ma'am." The woman was clearly younger than her but she always went out of her way to show women respect, younger than her or not. It was how she was raised, always show respect. And this time she actually felt it was owed. "Lovely tea shop. How long have you worked here?" she asked conversationally? She hadn't seen the women come in and she'd been there earlier when she'd gotten her first cup of the tea so she had to have been there all day, Long hours, she knew how that felt. Tag; honey satheesh varma
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last online May 2, 2024 17:01:00 GMT -7
WIZARDING ADULT
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Nov 23, 2017 17:43:12 GMT -7
Post by honey satheesh varma on Nov 23, 2017 17:43:12 GMT -7
“Yes, ma'am.” The woman confirmed that it had been the lemon tea that she had had before, which relieved Honey from the standpoint that she hadn't messed up in remembering the woman's order. As little sleep as she was running on, she was still—somehow—on top of it, but she wasn't going to jinx herself.
“Brill,” Honey noted, more for her own sake than her customer's, moving over to the till and stating the cost. She knew that she had been more generous with people than she ordinarily would have been, given everything that had happened, but tea also wasn't free.
“Lovely tea shop,” the woman added. ”How long have you worked here?”
Honey appreciated how pleasant the customer was. Even though it was late, the woman wasn't testy. “Thank you,” she told her. “It's been eight years,” she answered, which was the entire time that she had worked there—as a part-time employee, a full-time employee, and then as the owner. “Almost nine.” She had started there at nineteen, which was strange to put into perspective. “And I've been the owner for three.”
@nicolette
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last online May 5, 2024 23:47:35 GMT -7
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Dec 6, 2017 22:32:46 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Dec 6, 2017 22:32:46 GMT -7
Nico continued to look around the shop, attempting not to wander aimlessly through it. Trying to be considerate of the fact that it was obviously closing time and the woman didn't need her wandering around the shop and keeping her. It was hard though, the shop had a very nice feel to it. She sometimes hated when her own customers did that, especially when she was as tired as the woman looked, so she let her eyes wander instead of her body. She then proceeded to kindly answer her lightly intrusive questions about how long she'd worked at the tea shop. Nico smirked when she added in last that she was the owner of the shop. "Oh honey, you should lead with that. It's something to be proud of," she teased in her southern drawl. She'd been in the country for eight years and she wouldn't let her accent go. It was impressive though that the young woman owned the tea shop. She made her own hours and she didn't answer to anyone. It was enviable, Nico wished she could say the same. As far as the Ministry was concerned though she couldn't. Her side dealings were her own. "You must love it here. Did you always want to own it?" Retail wasn't always people's first choice but it had always been her choice. Maybe the woman was like her. Tag; honey satheesh varma
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last online May 2, 2024 17:01:00 GMT -7
WIZARDING ADULT
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Dec 10, 2017 20:39:59 GMT -7
Post by honey satheesh varma on Dec 10, 2017 20:39:59 GMT -7
“Oh honey, you should lead with that.”
Honey knew that the woman meant “honey” in the sense of the generic term of endearment, but that didn't stop her from doing a double take at what was also her name. She wondered for a moment if the woman had intended to call her by name; she still should have had her name badge on. If the woman hadn't seen it at all, Honey thought, it was still slightly funny to her that—of everything the woman could have said—it had been the word that was also her name.
“It's something to be proud of.”
She wasn't ashamed of her job at all. As a matter of fact, she loved it. Maybe it wasn't glamorous, but did she really need glamour to have a decent income? It fulfilled her to help people, and—short of becoming a Healer—being able to serve tea to those in need of a small comfort was a good way of doing that.
“You must love it here. Did you always want to own it?”
“I do love it here, but I didn't always want to own it,” Honey answered the woman with a shake of her head. She had never really thought of it as a possibility before the opportunity had presented itself and had to wonder if there was anyone out there whose life goal it was to own a hospital tearoom. “I started working here because I needed a job,” she explained, “and one thing led to another, I guess?”
Beginning to get the water boiling again for the woman's tea, Honey continued to explain what had led her to the tearoom.
“I used to be a patient here, so it feels like the least I can do.”
@nicolette
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last online May 5, 2024 23:47:35 GMT -7
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Dec 15, 2017 2:59:22 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Dec 15, 2017 2:59:22 GMT -7
Nico found the woman's reaction to her words a bit odd. Had she come off as rude, somehow? Did she break some unknown British social custom by addressing her in a way that was entirely too familiar? Nico didn't know for certain but maybe that would be the end of the conversation and the woman would just fix her tea so she would be on her way. Her worries went away though when she answered her in the midst of preparing her tea. She hadn't wanted to own the tea shop in the beginning but even looking around now Nico could see that she'd done a good job with the place. Of course she didn't know what the shop had been like under previous management, it could have been better. Nico liked it as it was though. She continued to listen pleasantly as the woman explained she'd only needed a job when she began working there but it was the least she could do since she had been a patient there. Nico froze momentarily. She couldn't decided it that was something too personal she hadn't meant to share. Nico leaned on the counter then, resting her chin in the palm of her hand and moving her eyes between the water boiling for her tea and the straightforward shop owner. "What for?" She asked simply, curious about the story behind the words.
Tag; honey satheesh varma
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last online May 2, 2024 17:01:00 GMT -7
WIZARDING ADULT
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Dec 15, 2017 19:58:35 GMT -7
Post by honey satheesh varma on Dec 15, 2017 19:58:35 GMT -7
“What for?” asked the woman, referring to what Honey had just mentioned about being a former patient herself.
“I had Cerebrumous Spattergroit.” Honey spoke the diagnosis casually, as she always had from having had to repeat it so many times over the years and as though what she was mentioning that she had once had wasn't the worse form of an already highly-contagious fungal disease. It was probably all the better not to shock the woman, she imagined, though anyone without a good bit of Healing knowledge probably wouldn't have known the difference between Cerebrumous Spattergroit and the regular kind—not that either one was pleasant in the slightest.
“I started to get really ill the summer before I was meant to go to Hogwarts, so my parents brought me to St. Mungo's,” she continued, still making the woman's tea as she spoke. “I was in hospital for a few months, and, well… I don't think I'd be alive without the Healers here.” If she could have survived the Spattergroit without a hospital stay, Honey guessed that she would have been miserable and that she probably wouldn't have had any memory of any of her life beforehand other than other people's accounts of things she'd said or done. She figured she would spare her customer the details, unless she actually wanted to know them.
@nicolette
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last online May 5, 2024 23:47:35 GMT -7
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Dec 22, 2017 4:56:05 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Dec 22, 2017 4:56:05 GMT -7
Nico was watching as the water boiled and waiting for the woman's answer. When it came, Nico stayed silent, not because she was stunned by the answer. She didn't know what it was. She'd never heard of the thing the woman described. She had no point of reference for what the disease -- and she was assuming it was a disease because it required a hospital stay -- did to the human body. It had to be bad, with a complicated name like that it had to be pretty bad. The witch then provided more details, saying that she'd gotten the disease the summer before she was supposed to attend Hogwarts, adding in her gratitude tot he Healers for her life. Nico had been homeschooled her entire life. Not just homeschooled, she'd been hidden most of her childhood anyway so she couldn't leave the house. With any sickness that Nico endured, which wasn't too often anyway, her grandmother and aunts had provided home remedies to take care of them. They always worked too. "Well it's good that you're fine now, Else this shop might be completely different," she said, offering the only words she could think of. Just outside of the shop, she saw a couple walk by, mother and father she assumed, with tears in their eyes. Probably another kid lost. Nico shook her head and turned back to the shopowner. "It's a sad shame what happened. I feel bad for all of those parents and kids..." It wasn't quite a lie but if anyone knew any more of the details it would be someone who worked here.
Tag; honey satheesh varma
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last online May 2, 2024 17:01:00 GMT -7
WIZARDING ADULT
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Dec 24, 2017 20:32:30 GMT -7
Post by honey satheesh varma on Dec 24, 2017 20:32:30 GMT -7
“Well,” considered the woman, “it's good that you're fine now. Else this shop might be completely different.”
It was strange to think about that, what the tearoom would be like if not for her existence. Honey had tried to run the place as closely as she could to how it had been when she had worked for the previous owners before taking over, though she supposed that the tearoom might have taken on some of her own character as time had gone on.
As British as tea was, no one had to tell Honey that she wasn't exactly an “English rose”, so to speak. She'd never really considered herself to be particularly attractive, much less extraordinarily so. Her skin was still pockmarked from her Spattergroit scars, and that wasn't to mention the thick, oversized black glasses that she wore. “Yeah,” she nodded, still in thought.
Honey saw the woman look back towards the corridor, and she caught a glimpse of the couple walking by. They didn’t stop, and their demeanor—even from a distance—was such that Honey knew that they must have been delivered bad news. Honey went to grab the cup of boiling water as her customer turned back to face her.
“It's a sad shame what happened,” the woman said, expressing her sadness for the parents and children caught up in it all.
“It’s been horrible,” Honey agreed. “I’ve never seen anything like this,” she told the woman sadly. In all of the years that she had worked there, nothing had compared in terms of the number of casualties. There had been other deaths—high-profile deaths, occasionally—but never so many people injured or killed at once and never so many who were so young. “I was meeting with my now-flatmate over the Floo Network when it happened,” she continued, grabbing the teabag and placing it in the cup of water. “I’ve been working almost non-stop since.”
@nicolette
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last online May 5, 2024 23:47:35 GMT -7
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Jan 15, 2018 0:28:59 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Jan 15, 2018 0:28:59 GMT -7
The woman seemed to consider her words before she agreed. Her water must have been ready because the woman grabbed it before she replied to her inquiry. Apparently she had been talking with a roommate when the news was announced. She assumed that her roommate hadn't been involved in the attacks because she didn't talk about her with any sadness in her voice. She then added in that she'd been working nonstop since and Nico wasn't surprised by that. She looked like she'd been working hard that day and there had been clear exhaustion in her voice when she'd entered before. Nico nodded sadly then. "And they were saying it was some sort of terrorist attack? I would be mad if I was a parent. Has the Ministry even been by to visit with the families? To apologize," she added some anger into her voice and took a deep breath after speaking. She wondered how close the ministry had been to the families or how often they came by to talk with the parents. She didn't want to look suspicious for coming by the hospital too often because she knew she would be back by at some point. Maybe she'd stop in for tea again. "Someone had to have known about that terror group before all of this. Someone should have been able to stop this." Of course they knew about Elaine. But she doubted anyone could have stopped her. She was powerful and it was impressive. It was exactly why Nico was sticking around.
Tag; honey satheesh varma
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last online May 2, 2024 17:01:00 GMT -7
WIZARDING ADULT
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Jan 19, 2018 22:16:19 GMT -7
Post by honey satheesh varma on Jan 19, 2018 22:16:19 GMT -7
“And they were saying it was some sort of terrorist attack?” the woman asked her. Their conversation’s having turned to the explosions was hardly unexpected. Since everyone was still learning of the full scale of the atrocities, Honey thought little of her customer’s curiosity in that regard. “I would be mad if I was a parent. Has the Ministry even been by to visit with the families? To apologize,” she questioned. Anyone in Britain, France, Bulgaria… Anyone anywhere within the magical world had reason to be concerned.
“That’s what the Ministry are saying now,” Honey confirmed with a slight nod. “A group from France.” It wasn’t impossible for the story to change as the Ministry learned more about what had happened, but that was what they had established. At least, Honey thought to herself, the group that had claimed responsibility for it was French and not British. It made it a little bit easier to swallow.
In response to the second question, Honey thought on it. “I’ve seen a few officials come in and out,” she noted, though she guessed that some of them were there for the sake of ensuring that records were updated. “I don’t think many of them know any more than the rest of us.” It would probably be another few days before they got everything in order, Honey assumed, though she’d never worked in government to know how much they had left to do.
“Someone had to have known about that terror group before all of this. Someone should have been able to stop this.”
Honey couldn’t have agreed more that someone must have known about it. With the Aurors that were supposedly stationed around Hogwarts, why had none of them checked the ship or the carriage upon arrival and before departure? They must have been capable of finding something dangerous and disposing of it. From the political side of things, the French government, at least, could have done more… And, so far, it seemed that Beauxbatons had suffered the greatest losses.
“I hope the Ministry do something about it all,” Honey continued, securing a lid onto the customer’s cup. “Especially with Hermione Granger in charge…” The woman was famous for having been one of the students to save Hogwarts all those years before. She wouldn’t let Hogwarts down just because she was Minister.
@nicolette
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last online May 5, 2024 23:47:35 GMT -7
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Feb 5, 2018 7:34:08 GMT -7
Post by Deleted on Feb 5, 2018 7:34:08 GMT -7
Even if the person she was talking to wasn't too close to the ministry and could only soak up the information she was given by the Daily Prophet, she still felt like everyone else too believed that this had all been the work of that French terrorist group. Really, that girl was amazing with resources out of this world. Before the British wizarding world even knew what hit them, Elaine was going to take them over. The tea shop over then commented that she'd seen a few officials come in and out of the hospitals. She wondered which ones they had doing damage control. If that is what they were doing anyway. Luckily enough, she wouldn't be on any of their radars considering she'd kept her own dealings quiet enough. She wasn't a blood purist either so her allegiances were easy to keep to herself. "I hope so too. Those kids and their families deserve some justice. I'm sure the minister is working with the French Ministry on a way to solve all of this." Nicolette didn't believe for a minute that everything that they'd told the public was everything that they knew. There was no way they were being entirely transparent. They were the wizarding government. It was more likely that they were holding information for 'the public's safety' or whatever excuse they usually came up with. "I'm sure she's dealing with a lot right now but I'm sure she'll figure everything out." Even if she was a muggleborn witch and everything that Elaine was fighting again, she really did wish success of some sort to the Minister of Magic. She wished it had been some guy that had been placed in the position to deal with all of this. With everything she knew Elaine had planned though, the woman was destined for failure. Tag; honey satheesh varma
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