Cloaked In Nightwinds [OPEN]

[lily luna potter]

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March 23rd, 2029

A shiver made its way through Lily’s entire body as she turned the key to lock the front door of the joke shop. For the past year or so, she had been given the task of closing at night. A growing responsibility among many others that her uncle had granted her. Lily hadn’t known what to do with it at first, as almost no one had ever trusted her this much in her life. One simply didn’t do that with her, especially if they didn’t know of the consequences that could follow. The thing was, Lily would never purposefully do anything to harm the shop. While it belonged to George, she viewed it as the family’s. What she did there reflected back on all of them. The other issue was that if she got canned, she had no idea where to go next. She wasn’t particularly good at anything aside from working a cash register and playing with prank products.

There was a tad bit of pressure in all of it too. She still lived at home in Godric’s Hollow, sometimes feeling like she was imposing by doing so, but also knowing that living on her own would be…difficult. Every once in a while, Lily had these adult, mature thoughts pop into her head, much to the surprise of herself and others if she told them about it. The realization that she was running behind her former classmates constantly popped into her head whenever she saw one of them walk by through the shop’s windows, wondering what they had done differently in their own lives to achieve such a feat of independence. For always touting her own freedom, she was doing a horrible job at actually following through with it. She still had her family holding her hand and guiding her along like they always had.

Pocketing the store’s keys, she confirmed that the doors were locked by giving them a hard yank. The refused to budge. ”Locked!” she said happily to herself before turning on her heels to walk down Diagon Alley. The sun had already set and almost everyone was gone in the alleyway, aside from the occasional shopkeeper also locking up or a resident from nearby. The chilly wind was keeping everyone indoors. Lily pulled her scarf above her nose as the cold March air bit into her skin. Only a little bit of walking before she got to the Leaky Cauldron, where she was going to grab something to eat before using floo powder to get home. She still hadn’t passed her Apparition test…

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[Vivian River Jordan]

23 March 2029

Viv knew she wasn’t as dumb as she might seem sometimes. She put a lot of work into her easy-breezy carefree vibe, a carefully curated coping mechanism to deal with the more unpleasant things in life. She’d done a lot of crying after a werewolf had attacked her, after her first transformation, after being turned away again and again for jobs until she’d found a gimmick that worked well enough to get hired (she was so tired of hearing that hiring werewolves didn’t fit with so-and-so’s family-oriented good values). But after a while, she’d decided she’d rather laugh than cry, and a good Ravenclaw always found a solution to their problem. So yeah, she didn’t mind coming off as the class clown if it meant chasing away the nightmares of the world for another day.

She couldn’t force herself to give more than a halfhearted and bitter chuckle as she scrolled through the obnoxiously long email her producer had sent her. …‘a proud result of Witch TV’s diversity initiatives on air’…‘but alarming rise in cancellations due to press attention on HOWL ’…‘tone it down until’…It was so many words to say nothing good, or maybe Viv really had swallowed some stupid potion earlier today. It was hard to keep a forced smile on her face as she felt her heart drop straight into her chest. Because yeah, it hadn’t escaped her notice that she was the only werewolf host on air. She wasn’t dumb enough to believe the decision to hire her had only been based on the potential they saw. But the email sounded a bit like a threat, like they really believed the storm of negative attention that HOWL was stirring up against werewolves meant more to them than standing by their on-air talent.

So Viv stared at the phone until she thought she might accidentally burn a hole through it, like she’d seen an Acid Pop do once. No bright ideas occurred to her, some brilliant response that would change their minds and delay the threat of hiatus. Her producers hadn’t thrown that word around yet, but Viv could feel the unspoken implications hanging in the air like a physical presence. Like a heavy cloak she was trying to slip off her shoulders. She felt numb, and it was hard to tell whether that was a result of shock or the chilly wind snapping through her clothes and hair. A moment later, she was torn out of her thoughts when she walked straight into another person, colliding heavily into them in the midst of her distraction. “Sorry mate…oh! Hi.” Viv stared blankly at Lily Potter, wishing it didn’t have to be her in this particular moment of trying to process a bit of bad news. She couldn’t find the energy to muster up more than a weak smile at the sight of one of her fave redheads, although she put in the effort anyway.

lily luna potter

[lily luna potter]

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Shrunken and hunched over in her oversized cloak, it shouldn’t have been a surprise that Lily’s minimization as she trudged down Diagon Alley would lead to her being bumped into. In this horrid weather, her hair had to be shoved down the back of her coat to protect the nape of her neck from the wind. Now that she was fully outside, she was starting to regret ever leaving the shop. No one would have thought twice if they found her asleep at the cash register the next morning with the space heater blasting on her. It may have happened once or twice before already. Needless to say, she was a sluggishly moving blob of drab winter clothes, aside from a strand of hair that had managed to sneak out the front of her wool cap.

That didn’t stop from the person that ran into her from recognizing who she was though. Blinking a few times, as her eyes adjusted in the low evening light, Lily also immediately knew who it was. ”Hiya!” she said cheerily to Vivian, instantly forgetting how cold she currently was and the way she had been feeling only a few minutes earlier. A good conversation always helped take her mind off of things. With how quiet the shop had been today, Lily was craving human interaction big time. The hope had been to get all of that at the Leaky Cauldron, but bumping into Viv first would work for her too.

”Cold out today, yeah?” Lily pointed out the obvious, while pulling her scarf down to be able to properly talk. The chilly air made her want to wrap her face right back up again. ”Been a minute since I’ve seen you. How’s everything been?” They were basically related now anyways, both being werewolves and all that. Lily knew her views on lycanthropy were vastly different from others, especially because she chose it for herself. Sometimes she wondered if that rubbed the other werewolves the wrong way.

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[Vivian River Jordan]

It was easy enough to recognize Lily, even while she was doing an incredibly spot-on impersonation of a vampire bat, if only because Viv had spent a good chunk of her childhood running around with Potters and Weasleys. She still had James on speed-dial whenever she wanted to airdrop memes to his phone or arrange a brainstorming sesh for new and creative ways to glitter-bomb people. More and more, though, she’d been calling him to vent about the station and the stupid hate-mail she’d been getting about her pesky little wolf problem. But her natural instinct was always to keep that away from Lily, since the youngest Potter wasn’t exactly who Viv would’ve chosen to talk about Grown-Up Stuff (TM).

At least, if only because consequences had never seemed to catch up with the girl. She seemed to live an easy-breezy life (not easy, maybe, but at least one where she could make choices about what she wanted to do). Then again, what the hell did Viv know? Her entire life was about to go on hiatus, because entertaining people had sort of become her entire life, and she’d never been the picture-perfect model of responsibility anyway. Viv flashed her a smile, although it was a lot dimmer than usual. “Hey Red,” she tried for a more cheerful tone this time around. Viv snorted at Lily’s observation that it was cold (because that was just as much of an understatement as saying that the Chamber of Secrets was a bit drafty) and looked her up and down to note the extra layers. “Merlin, you look like you’re trying to crawl into an Ice Mice’s arse!”

Still, she somewhat jealously eyed Lily’s thick cloak. Viv had taken off a glove to scroll through her producer’s insanely long email, but she stuffed her hand quickly back into it since her hand was quickly taking on all the characteristics of a frozen chunk of ice. She shrugged a little at Lily’s question, which was way more complicated than it seemed, and gave her a crooked grin. “Oh y’know me, I like the quiet life. Haven’t set off any glitter bombs in, what, a week?” She thought about it then nodded resolutely. It was a classic for her, a neat little way to add a signature into whatever bigger prank was being played. Viv wrapped her arms around herself to try and preserve a little body heat. “Where you off to? Headed home already?” As far as Viv knew, Lily was still with her parents in Godric’s Hollow. Still, Viv didn’t tease. She reserved that almost exclusively for Al and his mummy issues, although it’d been harder to poke fun since he’d moved out.

lily luna potter

[lily luna potter]

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Lily would honestly take a pack of Ice Mice right now over the weather, because at least the side effects of the candy were only temporary. Being chilled to the bone during the in-between travel from work to home was the absolute worst. Although, it could always be raining out. No one wanted to bet wet and cold, unless they were some sort of masochist. Which, to be fair, most viewed her as such with literally everything else in life. Her Quidditch ‘talent’ had been divebombing the opposing team even without the quaffle in hand, and her general recklessness definitely drew more than a few odd looks. ”I’ve had the shop roasting all day, so I figured I’d bundle up a bit.” She already missed her space heater. Once she got home, she was going to continue her layering by burrowing under her bedsheets. And maybe blast it with a few hot air charms too.

”If you’re ever looking to sell…” Lily commented immediately about the glitter bombs. Her uncle was always looking for more products to put on the shelves. There were a number of small-time inventors that had their joke items for sale there now, and from how she understood it, they turned a small profit. The hope was that one day she would find the enough intelligence to come up with something to sell as well. All she was good for currently was testing product and working the cash register.

Vivian went on to ask if Lily was heading home, and she nodded her head. A slight breeze found its way around the layers of her scarf as she did so, causing her to tighten it around her neck again. She really needed to get her apparition sorted out. ”Might have to stop by the Leaky Cauldron first for a warm up though. Don’t think I like the idea of taking floo whilst I’m frozen to the bone.”

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[Vivian River Jordan]

Viv didn’t even realize how up-in-the-clouds and distracted she’d been until she’d started chatting with Lily, but she was suddenly aware of all the things that’d eluded her notice until now. Like how awfully cold it was, and how could she have been wandering around with one glove off? She rubbed her hands together like that might produce a spark of warmth, and dreamily pictured the scene Lily was describing – a toasty warm joke shop, surrounded by space heaters and the best and brightest inventions by jokesters all around the United Kingdom. If she only had one day left, then that was it. Heaven on earth. “Sounds smashing,” she said wistfully. It definitely sounded better than being at the studio right now, surrounded by people who didn’t believe in her. Or at least, not enough to fight with her instead of against her.

She was finding it harder than usual to keep a megawatt smile on her face, but she made the effort for Lily. Viv had spent the last few weeks worrying and venting to James and Rosie, and in the end the only thing she’d gotten for her trouble was wrinkles. So she might as well go chase whatever good vibes were still out there, waiting to be discovered. “Sorry, can’t risk the secret formula getting out,” Viv said with a wink at Lily’s immediate hint about her glitter bombs. It wasn’t the first time Lily had asked about some of Viv’s finer charms work, but she always got the same answer every time. “Mum’s the word from me!” It did sound like an interesting proposition, but Viv didn’t have the time to dwell on marketing her pranks to a wider audience. And frankly, she liked keeping them for herself anyway. It gave her elaborate set-ups a more personal touch, instead of just grabbing whatever she could off-the-shelf like everyone else.

“Alright then, off we go!” Inviting herself seemed like the most natural response to Lily mentioning the Leaky Cauldron, so Viv looped her arm through Lily’s and immediately set off for the familiar landmark. It sounded better than wandering through the streets of Diagon Alley like a ghost, and anyway – it’d be nice to catch up. Lily was as much a fixture of Viv’s childhood as the other Potter and Weasley kids were, and she could always quickly relay the latest gossip. It was only a shame that they both ended up missing the same events whenever one clashed with the full moon, though. Then Viv was reliant on James and his faulty memory.

lily luna potter

[lily luna potter]

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”It’s alright. Better than keeping a fireplace going all day long though,” Lily said in response. Even better than that would be if her uncle invested in heating for the entire shop. Often times, when she got the furthest from her cozy counter and up against the front windows of the shop, she swore she could see her breath. The temperature drop-off was real. If she felt it, customers definitely did as well. Even as a simple cashier, Lily knew that was bad for business.

She scrunched her face up as Viv refused to give up her glitter bomb secret. Lily knew that if she was a tad more inventive with spellwork (and by that, she meant actually decent at it to begin with) then she could have reworked it herself. Or at the very least gotten in on it a few years earlier as a protégé of sorts, still testing it out at Hogwarts in lieu of Vivian. ”I’ll figure it out one of these days,” she warned jokingly. Only after several dozen blew up in her face first, probably.

Stopping at the Leaky Cauldron seemed to do the trick for Vivian as well, and the two of them started to head off in that direction. Thankfully, Diagon Alley wasn’t nearly as long as it felt when it was crowded. Almost everyone had retreated inside by now, hoping to escape the last few weeks of chilly weather. That was almost sure to mean the pub would be crowded, but that was nothing two werewolves couldn’t easily cut through to get some grub and drink.

”So, how’ve you been lately?” Lily asked as they neared the Leaky Cauldron. She knew there had been some issues lately with Potterwatch not being on air, but Viv was usually in such high spirits, Lily figured that wouldn’t bother her too much. In the end, it would just look like the station was purposely trying to diminish Vivian’s voice.

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[Vivian River Jordan]

Vivian hummed in agreement and shook her head at the British aversion to outfitting homes and shops with comfortable additions. Like central heating, or air conditioners. In the summer, whenever it got to be unbearably sweltering in the studio, Viv was always forced to whip up a quick cooling charm or fan herself energetically between takes. Someday she’d invent some kind of snow bomb to blanket the room with enough fresh powder for a snowball fight or to make snow angels. That sounded like just the thing for unbearably hot summers. In the meantime, they had the opposite problem and Viv stepped gingerly through the cobblestone streets while she kept an eye out for any sneaky ice patches.

“Don’t forget your pal Viv when you get rich and famous from it,” Viv said, smiling cheekily as she prodded Lily in the side. Growing up, she’d always wanted a minion (hence begging her parents for a little brother or sister when she’d been younger). It hadn’t worked out, so Vivian had gone looking for other places to pass on her legacy and cause unrestrained chaos. Al was worse than a faulty dungbomb, but Lily had always seemed more eager to find the joke and get in on it – an opportunity that had been utilized to its maximum at every possible party. And yet. Viv always kept a few of the best secrets for herself, a sort of signature that belonged to her. Glitter bombs weren’t terribly difficult, but hers always came with a twist.

But perhaps Lily had been secretly taking up Legilimency. Viv never had a good answer these days for ‘how’ve you been.’ It either involved lying or becoming a total downer, and so she usually stammered and stumbled through some kind of half-truth. “Peachy,” she answered vaguely, hunting for a safer topic. “I’ve been thinking of getting Drizzle a friend. But she’s been spoiled rotten and I dunno how she’d take sharing attention with another puffskein. Thoughts?” It wasn’t that Viv was looking for some kind of gimmick to convince Witch TV to leave her show alone. But she was somewhat desperately looking for some kind of new project to take her attention away from the rather depressing headlines and anti-werewolf vibes floating around. Although she wasn’t sure how much Lily would get it. She was probably the only werewolf Viv knew that’d actually chosen the lifestyle.

lily luna potter

[lily luna potter]

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”It’d still be all yours. I just want to be able to mass produce it. Slap it on a shelf and sell it to second years looking to pull one over on old Professor Zabini. You know, the usual silly stuff.” She had only failed his class once, so Lily saw it as revenge for making his written exams too difficult. Which actually meant they were about average, and she simply didn’t study or pay attention in class. He had said as much during one of their meetings, where he basically tried to give her as many ways as possible to pass his class. All so he wouldn’t have to deal with her for another year. His words, not hers. The man was blunt, she had to give him props for that.

Lily sucked in her cheeks at her friend’s comment on her current state. She wasn’t an expert on feelings, and typically did an excellent job at steam-rolling right by them and forcing her own going-ons on others, but she knew Vivian well enough to know that her response was meant to move the conversation to something else. Thank Merlin for working the cash register at the shop. Her people skills had developed enough to allowing others to talk. Finally.

”I don’t know much about pets really,” Lily admitted. Aside from her dad’s dogs, which she was much too rough with to play around with. They also avoided her at all costs, probably understanding that messing with a lycanthrope wouldn’t be in their best interests. Nervous little things, they were. ”But I’d say go for it. Could you bring her around the puffskein shop or whatever and try to see if she’s cool with it first?” People did that right? Introduced their existing pets before blindly getting another? ”My parents didn’t even trust me with an owl at school. I had to use one of those haggard looking things in the owlery if I wanted to send a letter.” And that usually ended up with her not sending any at all throughout her time at school.

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[Vivian River Jordan]

Viv ducked her head as a particularly chilly blast of wind tore through their clothes and swept through the alley. Merlin, she couldn’t wait until it was summer again – eating ice cream by the bucket and complaining about how hot it was. Weather always did seem to be a popular topic in the streets of London. She shot Lily a silly little grin, feeling an old spark of mischief ignite at the reminder of Hogwarts and pranks against the professors. Things that had brought her a lot of joy once, and managed to chase away the stormy grey clouds for a moment at least. “Now see, that’s where we’re different. I knew better than to try and outsmart Zabini. He’d know it was me in a mo’ and I like my head as it is.” Viv had always known how to choose her moments – peak drama, a good-sized audience, and nowhere near watchful professors with a tough reputation.

Lily seemed to take well enough to the subject of puffskeins, and Viv let herself dwell on the issue. “Yeah, that could work,” she agreed, picturing the scene at the shop. Drizzle would stay on Viv’s shoulder where she belonged while a parade of potential pets were lined up before her. She could judge if she liked any of them and make the final decision (which was exactly how things should be, a hierarchy with Drizzle at the top). She chuckled a little at the thought and nodded along to Lily’s story. “How about baby steps, Red? Keep that plant at the joke shop alive for a while and I’ll buy you an owl myself.” Viv had never had an owl herself, but they seemed easy enough to care for. Puffskeins were no real challenge either – just cuddly fluffballs with lots of love to give.

She dodged a puddle on the ground that’d been frozen solid, and continued to pull Lily along to the beckoning warmth of the Leaky Cauldron. “Come on then, tell me ‘bout the last few months. What’s the great Lily Potter been up to, eh?” Viv gave an encouraging smile as she continued to fish about for different topics, eager to keep a firm grip on the conversation so Lily couldn’t steer them into any difficult areas. Like asking about Viv’s life, or about Potterwatch, or about the news, or about werewolf things. Just a small and simple list. But Viv didn’t know many werewolves or have many werewolf friends, and that was somewhat on purpose. She didn’t like to be reminded of her condition, or all the ways it had changed her life. Sometimes she wished she could just be normal. Whenever it did come up, she made plenty of jokes about it. But right now? She wasn’t sure she could if she tried.

lily luna potter

[lily luna potter]

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Zabini was only ever harsh with her in class because he didn’t want to deal with her again for a third go at seventh year. Which Lily had no problem admitting was a pretty good reason to be upset at her constantly. The school really should have just moved her along to other classes after a certain point, because it was fairly obvious to everyone that she was awful at most subjects. ”I just liked being a disruption, that’s all,” Lily shrugged. Everything was for the laughs at the end of the day. It brought a little life to the cold stone walls of Hogwarts. Everyone had dealt with so much weirdness the last few years there that she tried to do her best to make it a little more bearable. The only problem was that she wasn’t sure if it had worked at all.

As tempting as it was to have her own pet, Lily knew her limits better than anyone. Usually she just ignored them. Apparently with age, came wisdom. Which was an improvement because typically she was only the dumb part and lacked every bit of the wis. ”I uhh…I’ve already killed three,” she said carefully. It wasn’t totally her fault though. Sometimes fireworks went wonky and blasted around the shop, other times she accidentally spilled Skin-Shriveling Juice on them. And then there was the good old forgetting to water it. If she wasn’t so good natured, Aurelia Flint would have had her head on a stake by now for plant abuse or something.

Lily watched Vivian move around a frozen puddle, which only led to the redhead stomping right onto it. Her boots were thick enough and waterproof so she didn’t have to worry about the icy water seeping in. ”Mmmm floating around aimlessly?” she said in a rather honest way as she hopped out of the puddle and continued walking again. ”Working isn’t as glamorous as I’d hoped. Do they really expect us to do this for the rest of our lives? It’s quite boring.”

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[Vivian River Jordan]

“Yeah, that’s all,” Viv echoed, smirking to herself and ducking her head down to hide her grin in her scarf. She knew what Lily meant, though. Some people liked to use pranks to bully the younger students or try and develop a certain kind of reputation for themselves. But Viv had always done it for laughs. It was the best way to cheer up a whole room at once, and if the prank was lighthearted enough or timed right – then even the target could laugh at themselves and lift the mood. It was a way of connecting with people, or talking through a certain medium. And for the budding mad scientist in Viv, it was a brilliant way of testing her inventions and releasing some creative steam. She’d almost never turned down a challenge in all her Hogwarts years, and testing herself by finding increasingly eccentric and inspired ways to achieve the same end result was a lot of fun.

“We’ve got to plan something for the next do at your parents’ place,” Viv prompted Lily. She knew the redhead would rise to the challenge – and it’d make the whole event more interesting. Viv knew she was capable of behaving, whenever she was really pushed to play nice by Rosie, but life was more fun this way right? And she could really, really use with a bit of fun right now. She let Lily’s admission about the number of plant corpses in the joke shop go unanswered, although she snorted (still hiding her facial expressions in her scarf) and continued to trudge through the frozen alley. If Lily ever did manage to keep a plant alive, Viv would be right there with a plastic or indestructible or something owl to hand her. But it seemed like that day was still far-off.

She gave a little sigh into her scarf and shot Lily the stink eye, although it was short-lived. “Brat,” Viv muttered with a crooked smile as the icy water went everywhere. Still, she didn’t say it with the same level of snobby malice that Albus always strived to achieve. This was more like it should always be, a bit of a joke with a teeny little grain of truth in it. Viv glanced down to see what the damage was to her shoes, but at least it was too cold for there to be any mud. No, that was frozen along with everything else – the wind, her face, and the hand she’d briefly exposed to the elements and was trying to warm up desperately in her glove now. She rubbed her hands together again and nodded along to Lily’s dismayed findings about what adulting really meant. “It’s the worst-kept secret, really. They don’t want us to find out ‘til we’ve left school and it’s too late. But yeah.” Viv untangled her arm from Lily’s so she could throw out her arms and do a quick spin, as if showing off the dreary-looking scenery like they were seeing it for the first time. “Welcome to the real world and the rest of your life. It’s rubbish.”

lily luna potter

[lily luna potter]

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Trying to be serious and convincing after spending her entire life being a menace was hard. Lily never blamed anyone for not believing her – it was a hard sell. She knew now that had she screwed around less in school and immediately after, there would be at least a few people that could take her seriously. Working in the joke shop absolutely didn’t help her case. But boredom and complacency had taken hold. A restless Potter was basically asking for trouble. Throw on a little dash of werewolf and it was honestly awful sometimes.

”It’ll be months before that happens…what’s even the next holiday anyways?” There was more of a chance that there would be a birthday bash for some cousin before then, with basically the entire family, extended family, and all of their friends as well. Prior to Hogwarts, Lily had found those to be the best. Until she was one of the last of the cousins to head off to school. Then they became incredibly boring. She’d spent almost all of her time looking through the closets and drawers of whoever’s house they happened to be at, snooping to the best of her abilities at that age. ”But yeah, it’s been a minute, hasn’t it? They’ve started to hide the champagne from me now because I got way too drunk at one of those Ministry Christmas parties a few years back.” Lily couldn’t even remember how she had gotten invited in the first place. It was either from her dad or one of her brothers. Maybe all three.

Entertaining herself by going feet first into the puddle made up for the crappy weather. Viv called her a brat, which caused Lily to snort. ”Not the first time I’ve heard that,” she smirked, already looking ahead to see if there were more puddles. ”So literally everyone is just faking it, right? I get that there are some that actually like their jobs, but I always thought adults were supposed to be these respectable figures to follow and learn from.” At least that was how the professors had been for the most part. And the majority of the older adults in her life. After dealing with customers and product vendors though? Merlin, she couldn’t believe that sometimes she was more mature than they were. It was wild.

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