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

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0

[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

MADE BY VEL OF GS + ADOX 2.0