nail i couldn’t bite (tamatha)

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It was fairly nice for a late morning in February. Edgarth had the day off, and while a part of him was itching to just get back to the field, he figured he could spend the day running a few errands around London. He needed some food for Shaggydog, as well as perhaps some groceries. Aside from that, he had no particular path mapped out for the day. Ed was usually someone who needed a good distraction, or he'd think too much about things he shouldn't. Like the worsening state of the magical world. Hopefully he would be able to find such a distraction running errands this afternoon.

Wandering into a small muggle grocery shop on the corner of some street, Ed was both pleased and displeased to see it mostly empty. Pleased that he could get his grocery shopping done quickly, but he wouldn't have other people there to eavesdrop on as a distraction and that meant getting his errands done faster. Luckily, Ed was somewhat of a slow grocery shopper so he was hoping he could drag out this errand quite a bit as he grabbed a shopping cart and headed toward the back of the shop to peruse dairy section.

@tamatha

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Living in Muggle London was occasionally interesting for Tamatha. While she could have—and probably should have—gone to magical establishments to do her shopping, sometimes it was simply more convenient to use some non-magical money and purchase a few things. That was exactly how she had ended up inside some non-magical grocery store not far from where she lived, basket of items in hand.

She had the day off—a rarity with the Quidditch season in full swing—and was actually sort of excited that the most stressful thing that she had to do was figure out what produce she wanted. She had made her way over to the dairy section, however, where she was slightly overwhelmed by the selection of just milk products.

Deciding on some milk and cream, as well as on some strawberry yogurt that didn't look as though it was filled with sugar, Tamatha set the items in her basket and began to walk back towards some other items that she had initially passed up. In so doing, however, she nearly ran into someone's shopping cart. She cursed under her breath for not having seen the other shopper in her way, though she began to laugh as she looked up at the person in question.

It was Edgarth Connolly, one of the Chasers for the Arrows, there in a Muggle grocery—and she'd nearly run into him. "Sh*t," Tamatha shook her head. If he didn't recognize her, she thought, he at least would have been able to feel the charm of her being a half-Veela—and hopefully recognize it for what it was. "I'm so sorry!"

@edgarth

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With no particular list in mind, other than he knew he needed to fill his fridge and pantries, Edgarth began slowly walking along the dairy aisle as he looked for his usual choice of milk. He was a big consumer of the stuff, so he reached into the refrigerated shelves and pulled out two gallons and placed them into his cart. He quietly thought to himself about what else he would need in this aisle before the idea of yogurt popped into his head.

As Ed began searching for a yogurt flavor that caught his eye, he was completely brought out of all manners of thought when his cart collided with someone else. "Sh*t," he heard them curse, before looking up to see just who it was as they were apologizing. If Edgarth hadn't been good with names and faces, at least when said names were involved with Quidditch, he wouldn't have recognized the blonde. But the half-veela charm already working its magic on him told his memory he was correct.

Running into another magical person was the last thing Ed had expected in a muggle grocery, but he happily welcomed the distraction. "Tamatha Berg," he greeted the Quidditch news coordinator with a smooth smile as he rested his elbows on the handle of his cart, leaning forward. "You are the last person I would have expected to run into in a place like this," he kept his eyes on her as he spoke. Never one to turn down an opportunity to flirt.

@tamatha

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Fortunately for Tamatha, Edgarth didn't seem bothered at all by the coincidence of their run-in in the unlikeliest of places. He took it in stride, in fact, and smiled at her as he leaned coolly against the handle of his shopping cart. "Tamatha Berg," he said, "you are the last person I would have expected to run into in a place like this."

"Likewise," she agreed with a laugh, relieved that the Chaser wasn't frustrated with her for having almost collided with him and his cart. At least he wasn't carrying his stuff in a basket, she thought, so it was only her pride that had been bruised. He could have completely ignored her, considering that she wasn't a player and just happened to work for the league on the business side of things, though there was also the fact that he probably couldn't look away because of her Veela blood. Either way, Tamatha was appreciative that things had turned out as they had.

"Do you live around here?" she asked, for the sake of making polite conversation. It wasn't as though she really kept tabs on the players' personal lives—not unless there was something going on that became public knowledge or affected their gameplay in any substantial way.

@edgarth

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Ed usually got along with most people he met. Save for the few he'd run into every now and then who thought him to be pompous. But he tried to especially get along with anyone in the Quidditch business. He was a Connolly after all! He had a family name to uphold. It was extra important to him to make friends with people who worked in publications and media as well. They were the ones who could write anything they wanted about him. Tamatha was no exception. Plus, it didn't hurt that she was easy on the eyes either.

The former Gryffindor's smile widened at the sound of the blonde's laugh. He thought nothing of it, of course. Ed loved the company of others. But there had always been something different about Tamatha that had always drawn the young Quidditch player to her. Whatever it was, she was great company either way so it didn't much matter.

Edgarth gave a slight shrug when Tamatha asked if he lived around the area. "Just a flew blocks around the corner. I usually do more shopping here than anywhere else, if you can believe it," he couldn't help the slight cockiness in his tone. At this point in his life, it was nearly second nature even without meaning to. "Just easier," he shrugged as he stood up more straight now. "And yourself? I've never seen you here before."

@tamatha

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Edgarth shrugged a little in response to her question. "Just a flew blocks around the corner. I usually do more shopping here than anywhere else, if you can believe it." Considering that Dmitri hadn't been to Diagon Alley much despite being a Ministry worker, Tamatha thought, she sort of had begun to believe that maybe it was possible to avoid the magical businesses. And it wasn't like Edgarth would have needed to walk into any of the Quidditch supply shops like the average person, anyway. "Just easier," he said.

It was probably easier not to get mobbed.

Edgarth then turned the question on her. "And yourself?" he asked. "I've never seen you here before."

"Yeah," Tamatha nodded. "I live around here, too." She hadn't chosen a random store to enter or anything, although she wasn't one of this grocery's regular customers. It was usually easier for her to go to one of the magical grocers around. "I don't usually come to this place much, though," she explained. She generally kept some Muggle money available for if she needed it, however.

@edgarth

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Even in the land of professionalism, Ed could never quite resist a chance to flirt with or chat up a lady. Tamatha Berg was no exception. Sure, he knew her because their careers had made it so, and she was involved with the news and media outlets, but that wasn't quite enough to deter Edgarth and his ego.

"Huh," Ed mused inquisitively. "You live around here? How come I've never seen you around then?" He raised an eyebrow at her, but kept his smile so as to not make her feel as though he was interrogating her. It was perfectly normal, after all to not run into wizards and witches in a muggle grocery shop. Diagon Alley had plenty of shops and stands for those types of needs. It was actually more odd to run into one in a Muggle shop more than anything.

@tamatha

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"Huh. You live around here? How come I've never seen you around then?"

Merlin, Tamatha thought as she watched Edgarth, her Veela blood must have been coming on strong. She wasn't even playing it up, the way she sometimes did when she had the idea that she could probably get something out of it. Edgarth was considerably younger than she was; she wasn't even sure if he was twenty yet.

"Because I'm always at work?" she finally laughed, though her answer to the Quidditch player was the truth. Work took up more and more of her life; there was always someone or something that demanded her attention. In all honesty, her free time typically was spent at the Leaky Cauldron, the casino, or Club Indigo—less often than before Cameron had arrived in Britain, though.

The second part of her answer was that she didn't really have much of a connection to the non-magical world. Although she had moved from France to Canada (and to the United States for school) to England, she'd stayed mostly within the magical communities in each. It wasn't that she had anything against No-Majes or Muggles, but she also didn't have too much to do with them.

@edgarth