Sleeping Golden Storm [Ollie]

[jimbo brian blishwick vi]

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July 1st, 2029

A crackle of thunder bounced off of the storefronts of Horizont Alley, the hazy humidity of the summer air finally giving way to a storm. Jimbo had stationed himself outside of his matchmaking business, watching the setting sun gradually be engulfed by the dark clouds of the incoming rain. London needed it. There had been a dry spell over the last few weeks, an unbearable heat that had grown extremely tired of. One could only cast so many cold air charms before that became a chore as well. He had already sent his assistant, Maddie, home a few hours earlier because business was slow, and he felt awful for making her suffer in this weather. Looking back on it, that had been a smart decision as she surely would have been caught in the nasty weather that was bound to come crashing down any minute now, had she left at her normal time.

Jimbo inhaled, failing to get the scent of petrichor. It was blocked by the urbanization of the shopping district. His grandfather’s home out in the country had always been the perfect spot for watching a storm rolling in. He missed spending his summers there, as he had done every summer up until he graduated from Hogwarts. When his grandfather downsized and sold the house to a wealthy muggle family, Jimbo had protested; he had only been nineteen at the time, but had wanted to keep it in the family, much like most of the Blishwick empire. Every couple of years, he looked it up to see if it was on the market again, but it seemed to still be owned by the same family all these decades later. N

Now, all he had was the front of his shop, Hogsmeade locations aside. If the rain was hard enough, not even the canvas overhang would prevent him from getting wet. Still, it was relaxing to watch the slow decline of the day’s weather occur. A final reprieve from the heat and providing them with at least an hour or two of cooler air. Until the humidity spiked back up, of course. Letting out a content exhale, he sipped gently on the cup of tea he’d brought with him, the temperature of which paralleled the outside air nicely. Pretty soon here, the shoppers of the alleyways would be scattering left and right. He always did enjoy watching that from the safety of his stoop.

Oliver Russell Blishwick ● 405

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[Oliver Russell Blishwick]

1 July 2029

Ollie hated to be accused of loitering, but he had simply reached that point of summer break where he didn’t know what to do with himself. In fact, he never had to wonder how to spend his free time – that was what his daily planners were for. A handy-dandy way to map out his responsibilities, make a neat and tidy homework plan, and use the spare time to advance one of his hobbies or polish up his CV. But this summer was not like other summers. NEWT year was over, he was in that strange transition from LIFE to Healer training, and no professors had reached out about summer reading yet. Merlin’s bloody hat, he hadn’t even gotten his NEWT results yet! The owl was supposed to arrive sometime later in the month, and Oliver was anxiously awaiting to hear his fate. Because truly, was there any point in going on if he hadn’t gotten straight O’s?

So yeah, he wandered around the different alleys of magical London and tried to look busy. He got a snappy reply from a shopkeeper after he spent too long poring over the dried herbs at an apothecary, and Ollie’s cheeks burned as he all but fled the scene. So now he tried to look busy, like any one of the shoppers around him – middle-aged witches who traveled around in groups, the occasional goblin making their way to Gringotts, and other students that were enjoying their summer holiday with ice cream and wearing their favorite Quidditch team’s colors. He briefly considered following the goblins to visit his mum at the bank, but she was probably insanely busy. Contract negotiations didn’t stop for the summer holiday, and he’d sat through her long legal explanations with a straight face for quite a bit already. He didn’t fancy spending the rest of his afternoon regretting the single question he’d asked at the beginning.

“Twisted broomsticks,” Ollie mumbled to himself as a crack of thunder warned of the rain to come. The other shoppers hadn’t scattered yet, so he took advantage of the quiet lull of the crowd to cut through and sneak into a hidden shortcut that led to Horizont Alley. He wouldn’t make it home in time, but he could see a familiar storefront up ahead and that was good enough for now. Ollie didn’t have the same aversion to the matchmaking business that his cousins seemed to have (Jimmie at least was super obvious about it). Like yeah, he didn’t have the gift but he still thought the whole thing was fascinating. It didn’t mean he’d ever ask for a match himself (his mum had made her feelings plenty clear about that), but the whole concept of matchmaking and happily ever after raised a whole host of interesting questions. And Oliver had always liked asking questions.

“Hey Uncle Jimbo,” he said, a little out-of-breath as he joined his uncle under the stoop. He looked like the dictionary definition of peaceful, sipping on a cup of tea as the first drops of rain began to patter against the canopy over them. He slipped his hands into his pockets and slouched, trying to catch his breath as he watched a gentle rain begin to fall. “You, er, haven’t gotten any owls today?” he asked casually. Ollie wasn’t sure how an address mix-up might happen, but there was a slight chance that it could’ve (sometimes people just saw the name ‘Blishwick’ and sent it all here automatically). But yeah. He was still a tad anxious about school, even though it’d been ages already since the end of exams.

jimbo brian blishwick vi

[jimbo brian blishwick vi]

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Jimbo chuckled to himself as a second crack of thunder erupted above the shopping district. Everyone that was still outside, of which there was a sizeable crowd hopping from shop to shop, instantly scattered. What he would have paid to see that from the rooftops. Like ants, skittering to safety. Realistically, the odds of a stray bolt of lightning ripping down into Horizont Alley and striking someone were unbelievably low. There were enough obstacles in the way at higher heights to draw in that power. It didn’t stop the groups of students from ducking into their favorite pastry shop, finally having an excuse to lighten their coin purse a little more before the school year started back up. Jimbo never envied the Vectors as he was quite happy with the empire he had built, but no one ever came running to him when the weather was nasty. Only when they couldn’t find love, was he ever thought of. Or if they wanted pizza now, he supposed.

Sipping on his tea, he heard the sound of fast-approaching footsteps, and his gaze flicked over to a familiar tussle of hair moving towards his overhang. ”Afternoon, Oliver,” he greeted the younger Blishwick. He often forgot that almost all of the youngest members of the family were completely autonomous now, able to run around the alleyways without the watchful eyes of their parents’ generation. Jimbo felt like he was oftentimes the refuge, mostly because he was cool with whatever his various nieces and nephews wanted to do. It helped that his work wasn’t always consistent as well, meaning his idea of ‘watching’ them was different than the rest of the adults in the family.

Jimbo looked down at the young man as he was asked if he had received any owls today. That…was a strange question to ask, wasn’t it? His first thought was that Ollie had purposely ordered something to the matchmaking services that he didn’t want his parents to know about. A great idea to have good old Uncle Jimbo take on the strange delivery. ”It’s Sunday. Unless the Wizengamot repealed the Owl Rights Act of 1308, I don’t think there will be anything until tomorrow like usual,” Jimbo said with a small laugh into his cup as he took another sip. ”Lovely day today, isn’t it?”

Oliver Russell Blishwick ● 385

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[Oliver Russell Blishwick]

Oliver shot a bright smile towards his uncle, taking care to stay away from the rain as people began to scatter and duck into the various shops that lined the edges of the alley. He’d always liked coming here, if only because Uncle Jimbo was a lot more generous with giving out milkshakes than his health-obsessed mum. And last year in particular, Ollie had all but fled to the matchmaking shop to have some quiet time while he studied for his NEWTs. Home was no longer safe once his dad had asked Oberon to step in and stage an intervention about his zealous study schedule. He’d pocketed Ollie’s spreadsheets and refused to give them back! Actually, he’d forced Ollie to relax and take a study break before giving them back, but that was almost worst. So yeah, Oliver had positive memories about coming here and having the chance to breathe and do things his way.

Uncle Jimbo made a calm and logical observation about there being no post on Sundays, and Ollie slumped as he remembered that pesky little fact. “Maybe they’ll wage their next war on Sundays once they’re done with werewolves,” he muttered petulantly at the mention of the Wizengamot. He did read the news (which was a very basic expectation of students who worked on the student paper), and the Wizengamot seemed almost fixated with HOWL and reexamining werewolf rights. But Ollie had never really immersed himself into politics, and besides reading the occasional article he didn’t know much about why these things happened. Maybe they had a good reason, or maybe times were just changing. He had a hard time looking past the fact that he still had a long wait to go until getting his NEWTs results.

“Er, I suppose,” Ollie said doubtfully as he looked out. It was raining harder now and the rain struck the canopy above them, providing background noise to their conversation. There was almost nobody on the street now except the occasional wizard with an umbrella or a shopper dashing between the shops. But maybe that was Uncle Jimbo’s idea of a lovely day. He took another look and imagined the rest of the day, maybe sitting by the window and playing video games while he occasionally glanced outside. “I guess it’s lovely if you’re inside, and not so much if you’re that bloke.” He used his head to nod at a wizard full-out sprinting down the street, robes soaked as he occasionally slipped on the cobblestones. Ollie didn’t understand why he wouldn’t just use his wand, but some people were mysterious that way. Maybe he'd somehow forgotten his wand somewhere. Anyway, his uncle seemed entertained by the whole thing. He had an inexplicable smile on his face, like every day was the best day and today was no different.

jimbo brian blishwick vi

[jimbo brian blishwick vi]

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Jimbo held his tongue as his nephew made a witty jab at the Ministry over their current state of affairs. The children were going to be all right, especially if they continued to pay attention the way they were right now. He had seen the same from his daughter, though Jimmie had always been like that to some degree. She unknowingly took more after her mother than she realized. Unfortunately, Oliver was right though. This was a ‘war’, though mostly of egos and attempts at controlling an ‘enemy’ that wasn’t really one. If anything, the Wizengamot should have been pulling back now that Fenrir Greyback was dead. The power vacuum amongst the werewolves in his clan would be vicious, assuming the struggle followed typical historical trends. Such concerns were so ridiculous though, and the lycanthropy scares of the eighties and nineties were far behind them now. Except to the rotting corpses at the top of the government, apparently.

His nephew didn’t seem convinced by his thoughts on the weather. Which was understandable. A young lad like him would be able to get so much more done with the sun out, whereas this just kept him inside or ducking for cover. Jimbo liked it because it allowed him to be lazy, and the more frustrating couples using his services at home. The prim and proper purebloods despised the rain like sunlight to vampires. He had always wondered if there was a correlation, where the ultra-wealthy merely sucked the life out of those that worked for them and brought in their dragon hordes of gold.

Oliver pointed out a man that desperately attempted to bolt down Horizont, but it looked to be too late for him. There came a point where one simply had to accept being soaked through. Today was one of those days if you managed to get caught outside in it. ”Hope he knows basic drying charms. I imagine he has half of the Black Lake in his shoes by now,” Jimbo observed. ”So what trouble were you getting up to before all of this,” he added, pointing out at the street. Another clap of thunder and the already hard pitter-patter of rain started to come down harder.

Oliver Russell Blishwick ● 369

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[Oliver Russell Blishwick]

Uncle Jimbo maintained a diplomatic silence while Oliver shook his head at the increasing paranoia of the Wizengamot. At least, it seemed that way to him. There’d been a dramatic tone change over the last several months – what had started as short and informative pieces on the Wizengamot’s legislative agenda had long since become rants about the dangers of werewolves and the apathy of the magical community in dealing with them. If there was an underlying logic in bringing up the topic now, years after the defeat of the last big threat, then it didn’t make it to the front page of the Prophet. He wondered if Uncle Jimbo had any particular opinions, although he also didn’t share much in front of the kids - Ollie supposed that came with the territory of being a ‘pillar of the community’, but he would’ve liked to hear some unfiltered honesty about the stuffed hats that sat on the Wizengamot.

“Some people like to let their clothes dry naturally,” Ollie observed distractedly, his eyes still tracking the wizard running down the alley until he turned a corner. It was a growing trend in the British magical community. Some people liked to try the Muggle way of doing things – chopping their own vegetables, hanging their cloaks to dry by the fire, even walking to do their shopping. It didn’t just seem to be Muggleborns, either. “Not too many, mind you,” he added hastily, although he accompanied that comment with a shrug like he didn’t care either way. He wasn’t much into following fads (why do that when you could wait a couple years for something to go out of style and then buy it much cheaper). Blood purity was going out of fashion again, but that didn’t mean most wizards were ready to let go of the easy convenience of having a wand for those dull everyday tasks.

He turned to raise an eyebrow at his Uncle Jimbo at the implication that he’d be causing any sort of trouble. It might’ve been a proper assumption for Lulu, since she’d gotten a hint of a reputation for those sorts of public shenanigans. And maybe it could even describe Jimmie, whenever she was being particularly stubborn (or had gotten herself drunk) and didn’t know when to stop talking as a result. But as far as his professors were concerned, Ollie was an angel – and that made it much harder to spot any potential sneaky wrongdoing (like the lax rules he’d adopted for himself in borrowing books from the library or developing creative methods to get his homework done). “I was practicing weather charms,” Ollie said dryly, crossing his arms and looking up to watch the rainfall practically drown the remaining shoppers in the alley. His tone wasn't overly sarcastic (because that would get him in trouble with some authority figures anyway), but he'd gotten good at telling the story with his expressions. And while it wasn’t that he thought Uncle Jimbo was being particularly nosy – it’d be good practice for his mum later when she’d want to hear about his day and probably ask the same question.

jimbo brian blishwick vi