The Entrance
 

https://s26.postimg.org/g5rory2ih/entrance.jpg

Situated between the Daily Prophet and Flourish and Blotts sits a large, obviously old building. The stone walls are slightly at odds with the glass doors that have replaced the splintery wooden ones. Open one of the doors and step inside the brightly lit building, while thanking your lucky stars that the wooden floors have been redone with smooth, shiny tiles to keep your shoes free of long, sharp splinters.

Please either proceed inside, or return to the street, at your leisure.

Premises Map

Elnesiel entered the Owl Post Office and looked around. She already had an owl, and did not need to send a letter to anyone anyway, so she then exited the post office again.

Lore stood at the entrance to the Owl Post Office. Amazingly, he was NOT in disguise. No! No Rick Edmund anymore! That disguise was now dead, by now his last hair of Rick was used up. He could have just found someone else. But that was not needed. He had worn Rick Edmund's face as a precaution. He had not known who might have heard of his crimes all the way to here. But no one seemed to know.

Now he wore a different face, HIS face. He was taller and thinner than his disguise and very pale, so pale that some might mistake him for a vampire.

Lore stepped into the Owl Post Office.

Ayumi had a few more days off before going back to the muggle world and thankfully she still has time to do this. It's been awhile since she has done the whole sending of package or letter to someone, so she's quite anxious in the first place. She's just hoping the system hasn't changed yet or anything like that.

Ayumi apparated through the entrance. In her hand was the package and letter that she'll be sending. Sigh.

Here goes nothing...

Vashti had been heading to the owlery to check up on the owls when she noticed a man standing in the entranceway. Just...standing. Did he have a letter to send? If so, why didn't he just continue on to the service desk? Was he lost? The post office wasn't really that hard to navigate through though. But was it just her...or did he seem vaguely familiar? Like she'd seen him somewhere but couldn't remember where...

Whether that was true or not, he was still a customer, and she was still an assistant, so she ought to assist him.

Walking over, she greeted him with a smile. "Hello, sir. Can I help you with anything?"

Isaac just stared at the young girl approaching him, he thought she was about to leave so he dodged her subtly and almost went on. But no, she apparently wanted to talk to him.

"Hello." He smiled politely at her after doing the math and figuring that she was someone who worked here. Wasn't she a bit young to be working, though? He thought the kids were over in school now...? Isaac almost glanced out the door making sure it was cold enough for Christmas. "Yes, please. I just got here from.." he looked back at the young girl, "..a long trip. I'd like to send a letter to someone." That just sounded off in his head. Since when does Isaac Mikash Carter have anyone in his life in the first place? People were just tools to get to what he wanted, what he desired and what made him what he is.

The man moved his cloak slightly out of his feet's way and meant to walk with the lady. "My daughter." Look! it wasn't so hard to say. He let out a feeble sigh. "Does it work if she was in school? Or is there a special place where I have to go to in order to get letters to Hogwarts?" He really didn't remember the procedures.

He never got any letters while in Hogwarts so..

Ah, so he did want to send a letter. To his daughter. Now if only she could figure out who that was, Vashti might remember why this man seemed so familiar.

But he...didn't seem to know that he could just send a letter here? Did he not send letters before? Or maybe wherever he had been at on his long trip had a different postal system than this one? Vashti wasn't sure where that could be though, even if she didn't exactly go to other places very often. Surely she would've found it in a book, but perhaps she hadn't found the right one.

Anyway.

"No, there's no special place besides here," she replied, shaking her head but still smiling. "If you have your letter ready, you can come on up to the service desk and I can help you get it sent off."

Charlotte stood at the entrance of the post office. Looking up into sky and seeing this unfamiliar building, she realised that it had been ages since she last sent something back to her family in the muggle world.

It could be possible that she had as well, forgotten how to post and all those kind of things. Stepping into the office, she stood there, watching everyone else passing right next to her. Maybe she should ask someone for help.

Yoooo~ Daily Prophet newspaper boy is here!
 

Hearing a voice, Vashti waddled walked out of the back room to see who it was. A customer perhaps? Although she thought she'd caught the words "Daily Prophet," so...maybe a reporter? Hmm. It didn't seem like it as she approached the entrance of the post office where the boy was standing with the newspaper.

"Hello there," she greeted him with a friendly smile, resting one of her hands on her pregnant belly and the other on her hip. "What can I do for you?"

João was confused as she did nothing to get the book from him. Although she looked fairly unconcerned about it for the moment, he still kept it as far as he could from her and tried to relax like she did, raising his eyebrows at her remark. "I believe I am proficient too," he said, wondering where this was heading to.

Oh. It was heading to there.

"I'm afraid in Brazil the name is not 'Post Office', so excuse my ignorance." His sentence sounded too childish suddenly, as if he couldn't find the words to tell. He hated it when she had the control. And looking into her blue eyes, he could see he didn't stand a chance.

She. She was a wonder.

"I have just bought one, one week before coming here to let necessary people know." She had a place among them too. Only, she'd written him sooner than he could. "I'll also learn 'Post Office' in Portuguese as soon as I'm home." So he WOULD owl her.

"It's obvious you knew about this place though... and I believe there was also one in Hogwarts?" So it wasn't only him that didn't write. It was mutual.

João tilted his head to the right too, and just viewed her. A million answers crossed his mind, but he didn't say any of them because all sounded too childish. So one of her reasons to see him was to hint she wanted letters. And letters she would get. Although he wasn't they type to write letters, she would. So, hoping that she would understand his full agreement, he simply nodded to this request.

His mouth fell open in his utter surprise for a few seconds before he collected himself and re-established his confident stature. His heart also skipped more than a few beats, and he nearly dropped the bag from his hand.

So she did want to keep in touch with him.

He was definitely not expecting that... confession? Information? Both? His chuckle was even a few seconds late, and it took him longer to register that last year's Head Girl was Louisa. He frowned at last, but didn't seem to care much. He didn't want any Louisa right now, especially not with Aspen.

"Was I? My memory declined awfully on our last encounter," he mumbled, although he remembered perfectly. He even looked away with a small frown as if he tried to remember, but shrugged afterwards. He returned his gaze to the blue eyes. "My life isn't a blast either without our fights. And I don't even have a Head Girl to set on fire."

Again, seeing was believing, so Aspen would just wait and see if letters arrived for her. But... she certainly felt better, more optimistic that one MIGHT show up from the former Slytherin now. Unless she set HIM on fire before they parted today.

And let's be honest - there was at least a 50/50 chance of that happening.

Aspen noted the mouth drop. She REALLY noted the near bag drop. Clearly, she had effects on him, ones that miiiiiight get her her book without much effort on her part. It wouldn't even be cheating either.

"A blast," Aspen smiled. What an appropriate choice of word. There usually was a BLAST of some sort, whether literal or verbal, when they got together. "She's probably around here somewhere if you feel up to it. I find teaching her lessons... therapeutic. She shrieks sometimes, you know." Hehe.

Hehe. OR they could go OWL Louisa now and get her over. Then blast her.

...she knew Joao wouldn't go for that, but still, if he needed some excitement in his life... she was up for it. "I want something else, too. In addition to my book, your brain for the day, and letters in the future." Aspen still held his hand, still was at his eye level on a step up from on the Post Office entrance steps.

João smiled back, eyes sparkling. A blast. He didn't share her amusement though about Louisa, and simply shook his head. "She's your Head Girl, see? It wouldn't be as therapeutic on me." And Vickers' girl too, for that matter. SHE needed a lesson on Post Offices, actually, never responding to the only letter he'd sent to her. So no, João didn't want to see her, nor talk about her.

He smiled again at 'your brain for the day', forgetting about Louisa. He unconsciously re-gripped the book and hid his arm behind his body at the mention of it. "What is it then?" he asked, keeping her gaze.

"Not anymore," Aspen grinned, her eyes glinting with mischief and zero apologies for any stress, gray hair, and/or turmoil she caused the former Head Girl. It'd been too fun and educational to regret. "I wonder what would be therapeutic to you?" a random, out loud thought. He'd probably get more jollies out of hexing ASPEN than Louisa, huh? Huh. Heh.

..bring it.

As he moved his hand behind his back, Aspen too made a move. She let his other hand go and put both hands behind her back, sort of mirroring him. Sort of saying... your turn. Sort of testing him, as usual.

"If you're still in the country when it's time for me to return to Hogwarts, I want you to see me off at King's Cross. Meet me on the Platform before I leave." Again, she was asking without apology, without any regard that she was asking for a lot, and actually - she wasn't asking at all. Just letting him know what she wanted. If she got it, she got it, and if not... then well, life went on. But she DID want him to see her off. She DID.

Yeah. Not anymore. Louisa'd graduated to have a gap year happily with--

No Louisa anymore.

João forced himself to smile, trying to share the tiniest bit of Aspen's amusement. Luckily though, she didn't insist much, and he could shrug casually at her question. "I've never thought about it." Standing here, learning about posts was very calming, actually.

The tip of his mouth curled into the smallest smile when she imitated him. See? He wasn't such a moody person, after all. It took so little to make him smile. If she didn't want to hold his hand, he would put it over the other one to guard the book better.

...Aspen was the fourth dimension of the world.

This time his mouth didn't fall open though, because... well, she made him remember perfectly that she was Aspen Odessa, The Lady of Surprises, so he just blinked away to calculate. After ten seconds' silence, he looked back at her again.

"That can be arranged."

His eyes were full of questions though, questions like 'Why? What happened to your friend--Max, was it? What about my friend Estrella, and West and your parents and--?'

She was heading fast towards covering also the fifth dimension.

Aspen remembered a day she played with him in the snow that had seemed VERY therapeutic to him. She was sure he hadn't forgotten it either, whether he'd thought about it or not.

He was DEFINITELY thinking about her want of him on the Platform though. He was THINKING over there, and if he'd stop being a twerp and give her her BOOK, she might be able to start learning how to READ those thoughts from his head. By the time she was finished thinking this though, he was out with an answer.

An agreeable answer, at that. "Then arrange it. I'll give you further instructions if you really do show up." That'd been easy, and she clearly had him on the brink of asking her more questions, so Aspen decided to use the tilt her way to her advantage.

First, she took her hat off and placed the big, sun-blocking thing on Joao's head. Then, quite carelessly, she rested each of her forearms on his shoulders, sort of giving him a messy, incomplete hug. She was sure she had his attention in any case. Did she have his WHOLE attention? Hmmm?

Aspen liked to give orders, didn't she? "Sim, senhorita," he said in a serious manner as he bowed. Then, when he drew a breath to ask her some of his questions, her hat was on his head. He paused, trying to come up with a reasonable comeback. The way she hugged him--certainly her arms wouldn't go all the way down to the book.

"You can't distract me with your hat, lady," he said, settling on doing nothing in the end. He could even tolerate the hat for a few seconds. "You have to answer my questions too. It's only polite to give something in exchange of another thing." He moved his arm that held the book again, though he still kept it at the back.

Ready for the questions?

"You didn't exactly say all the reasons to meet me. What are those?" He paused as if he tried to choose his next question. "Also, what will be the 'instructions' if I do show up?"

Waaah! Might not get to finish this one *eyes date*
 

João laughed, shaking his head in the manner of 'What will I do with you?' He liked her directness, actually. That meant she would just keep silent instead of lying if she didn't want to answer, right? Right.

"Yes, 'fair' is another word to describe it." He sounded as if he didn't finish all that he had to say. Truth was, he was distracted with her coming closer yet. Not that he was uncomfortable. Surprisingly, she was one of the few people that didn't make him feel suffocated.

'Book. Focus on the book.'

He nodded at the reason and considered the instructions part again. He was being the soon-to-be-dead cat here, accepting her conditions because she made him dead curious.

Oh well. He had to know. And if she wished something silly there, she would be dead.

"I will come." He paused again, searching for words. "So, goodbye until then?" They were done here, yes?

João shrugged. He didn't care much, unless unfair things affected him.

Now--now he felt suffocated. He wondered if she encircled him on purpose to get the book more easily. This was a kind of duelling too, to corner him by his fears, no?

No. He could resist yet. Just a few deep breaths...

Instead of calming down, he panicked more.

With a sudden movement, he pushed open her arms as strongly as he could. "Yeah, you'll geddit," he said as fast as could. He felt like he had one condition to give her the book, but he couldn't remember what it was. In any case, he had to not touch her to be able to think anything. He took a few steps back, face flushed, and breathed, and breathed, then held out the bag towards her.

Oh... INTERESTING.

Now that... THAT was INTERESTING.

Joao didn't like hugs. Hugs, or engulfing him, caused... reactions. He'd been pleasant and relaxed up until the point where she moved closer.

That information got filed away for future use.

In the present however, her booooooooook!. Aspen didn't hesitate to take the bag. Her BOOK! "Thank you." Thank you. Really, thank you.

"Joao." She stepped back from him, too, giving him the space he needed, and hugged her book. "See you." She smiled, then turned away to go.

João just nodded, since his heart was still frenetic. After a few seconds, and after seeing her hug the book instead, he could finally smile. "You're welcome, Aspen," he said meaningfully. Now that he was a few metres away from her, he could think and understand that one of the instructions at the station would be 'Stand still and look into my eyes so I can read your mind.' or of that sort.

Bring it.

"Have a nice holiday," he said in return and looked after her for a few seconds, head tilted, before he turned away too towards the Muggle entrance of the alley.

Mangig was FULL of energy today. Even more than usual. So of course it was only natural he would somehow get outta the owlery. He needed to SEE PEOPLE. No one was sending him off with letters so he needed to get his energy out SOMEHOW.

He FLEWWWWW around the shop a couple times and then spotted a PERSON. HOOOOOOOOO. NEW PERSON.

Giggy soared down and flew excitedly around the girl person's head. HAIIIII GIRL PERSON. HOOOOOOOOOOOOOO ARE YOU???

Her greetings were answered in a way that truly brought happiness to her insides. As an intrigued expression formed on her face and inside her hazel eyes, the button girl watched the owl flying around her. The sound of it hooting made her close her eyes for a moment and just imagine. Imagine herself in a bird sanctuary full off them, that was.

A moment later she opened her eyes and gave the owl a smile. He was not quite like Button, her owl at home but he was just as unique in Lina's eyes/ Each being, each animal was their own individual and each individual was important in their specific way.

"You are a dear one, are you not?" Warm, warm smile towards the bird. If only she could give him a pat and maybe ask him where she were to report to.

Elisa came out, at the entrance having heard the door bell ring, signalling arrival of someone.. Was it a customer or the new interns? Seeing Mangig already at the front busy welcoming the newcomer, she shook her head slightly and smiled at the girl in front of her.

"He is, yeah!" Elisa replied, glancing at the girl. "Seems like he likes you.. And you like owls too, yes?" Perhaps she was one of the interns? If so, then, she was great. Of course, since she seemed to like owls. Which was a really important thing.

Taking some owl treats from the side drawer in the desk counter, she extended her hand to the owl. Turning back to the girl, she asked, "How can I be of your help?" Hopefully the girl turned out to be the intern.

Sowie it's a little late! <3
 

How beautiful the flying owl was. Adelina looked at it for a few moments more until a voice had her attention distracted. She looked for the source of the voice and before her was a lady who seemed to have worked here. Was this her boss? Or possibly just a worker? Those questions faded off her mind rather quickly as she already began to put a button to the face.

"Yes, beautiful too." She replied with a warm smile in the lady's direction. She then nodded some more at the question. She loved all animals and was therefore a vegan. "Of course, nature is like my home." The lady wold understand what she meant by that? She wished so. Not many understood nature for what it was.

With her eyes Lina very fascinated watched as the lady took some owl treats for the owl. However she still focused on what lady was saying when she spoke. "I am here for the internship." She took her eyes off the owl again and put them back on the woman waiting for some sort of instruction.

Giggy continued excitedly zooming around the girl's head, hooting every few seconds, until he saw one of the familiar girl persons approach and-

Was that a TREAT? HOOOOOOOO.

He flew towards her - a little too excitedly because he zoomed right past her - but then he corrected his flight and flew back over to her, landing on her arm so he could gobble up the treat.

Soheir was trying NOT to storm and she had even bothered to stop before the door to the Owl Post to take a deep breath in and a deep breath out. Though, she did hold on to that door a while before pushing...Oh, pulling it open.

For Lisa and Cam! :3
 

While he'd promised his sister that they would do all their school related shopping TOGETHER (she was very excited, clearly), Cam had also wanted to visit Diagon Alley on his own occasionally. And not even to meet with anyone, just to...be by himself. Here. He didn't have a lot of free time, what with Quidditch and everything, so he was enjoying this walk down the street. Naturally, he was headed for the Quidditch shop. Maybe he could also stop by Sugarplum's and get Liam something. Yeah. Maybe he-

Oh.

The small crash caused him to stop and look around. There weren't that many people where he stood so he could quite easily spot just where the noise had come from. Wait. Wasn't that- "Do you need help?" He looked familiar enough but he couldn't remember his name at the moment. Cameron WAS pretty sure the boy went to Hogwarts, though. Hello.

UGH. Whatever was inside the box...Charlie was sure it's broken and his sister was definitely going to kill him when she gets her hands on him. "Oh, come on!" It was definitely not his day today. The Hufflepuff managed to place the other boxes on the ground before picking up the one he dropped. It was wet and the sound of shattered glass could be heard the moment he turned the box in an upright position. Charlie sighed, and rolled his eyes at his predicament. Why can't Marianela just mail the shop and have it shipped back to her if it was really important?

The younger Hufflepuff looked up at the voice who called out to him and did a double take. Charlie immediately realized who it was, on account of the fact that he too was a Quidditch player back in school, and that he was one of the beaters who tried to keep him from scoring. Funny thing was, Charlie had an impression that Slytherins were too cool for school and they were naturally the not so chummy kind. So, he did keep his distance away from them after the match. But, hey. Maybe they weren't so bad after all. This one asked if he needed any help. "Uh..." Charlie scratched his ear sheepishly. "How do you tell your sister that you broke her package? I mean...if you had the kind of murderous sister that is..." Any Slytherin input would be great.

Cameron wasn't chummy, per se, but after he'd looked the boy's way, he felt weird just walking by. So he'd offered to help, as one did if they'd been raised well. He even gave the boy a sympathetic smile when he got a closer look at the box. The crash hadn't sound tooooo good. Hopefully there was nothing all too valuable in there. Although, it could probably be fixed, right? Maybe not by either of them - at least not here - but by an adult, surely.

Welp, it was his sister's?

"I do not-" Have a murderous sister. "-but...are you sure you can't fix it? Do you know what's broken?" Maybe someone inside the post office could help them with the magical aspect of the fixing?

Charlie looked from the older boy to the wet, soggy box near his feet, and helplessly shrugged. "It's one of her beauty potions. You know...those liquid thingamajig they put on their faces all the time?" Surely, Charlie cannot be bothered to know what exactly it was, but he was sure it was the pricier ones. "I'm sure one of us can repair the bottles...but that'll be useless if we can't salvage what's inside it." Charlie let out a sharp breath out of his mouth before looking back at the direction of Madame Primpernelle's. "There is NO way I'm going back to that shop. I've been--" he said, showing his forearm bearing all shades of pink and red lipstick, "Experimented on." How he ended up being their guinea pig, he wasn't quite sure.

"By the way, you're Cameron Tamesis, right? Beater for Slytherin." the Hufflepuff unrolled his sleeve to cover his lipstick laden arm and went back to fussing over the wet box before them. "I'm Charlie. I play Chaser for Hufflepuff." Bel's team? Yeah.

Cameron did NOT know but nodded anyway.

Oh. Well. This was truly a problem then. Cam, too, looked down at the mess to their feet, trying to come up with a solution. "I mean, you could-" Go back. But that, apparently, was not an option for the other boy. Judging by the way he was dramatically showing him his forearm, that is. "Experimented on by whom?" Were his sisters there? Or had it been just random girls in there? Or some of his friends? Or his girlfriend? Boyfriend? This was all important information he had to know BEFORE suggesting something.

Charlie, right. That was the boy's name. Cam nodded, lightly nudging the box with his shoe. "I am. Yeah. You're good." At Chasing. He was not easy to hit with a Bludger.

Yeah, going back wasn't an option. Aside from the fact that he didn't know 99.7% of the products being sold there, he wasn't a fool to be a guinea pig a second time around.

"Erm...not quite sure? I'm sure they're from Hogwarts, but I'm really REALLY bad at remembering names." a pause and a shrug, "Besides, it all happened too fast for my liking. I guess I was at the wrong place at the wrong time." Charlie had an inkling that they knew him because he played for Hufflepuff. He thought, if he was going to go professional in the future, he might as well get used to the attention.

And...perhaps learn how to say no.

And he did just say he was good??? Charlie hid a sheepish grin by scratching his nose. "Oh, thanks. It's practice I guess. I've been playing Quodpot since I was a kid, and started Quidditch not too long ago in Ilvermorny..." Yes, good old Ilvermorny. "You put up quite a challenge though! I have to do crazy maneuvers to avoid flying bludgers from you." Nod nod. "You play for the U17, yeah? I tried out this year, but I guess I need more practice...I hope to play against you soon next summer." And whoops? Was he babbling? "Right...er, sorry I talk too much." he said picking up the discarded box and threw it in the nearest bin, like a quaffle to a goal post. Score!

Oh. Nobody he really knew then. Wow.

Cam gave him an empathetic smile and glanced down at Charlie's arm again before he pulled down his sleeves. "We could go back. Check to see if they're still there?" And also if they were they could just...not let them draw on them? Had they held Charlie down by force? How had he even gotten into being used as a guinea pig here?

Quodpot. Wow. Somehow a lot of people were playing that nowadays. Was it a new hype? Or was it just the people who'd transferred over from the US. Was it really that big over there? He might have to ask Liam some time.

"Cool." He offered the other boy another smile. "Oh. Yeah, thanks. I do. Yeah?" He'd tried out?? "Which team? I play for Scotland." It was always somewhat interesting to find out where people actually lived when they weren't at school. Somehow it wasn't really something he talked about with others. Not even his friends. He only knew where Zoryn lived because she was also on the Scottish team.

"Nah, it's fine. I'm pretty sure I'll bump into them one of these days." And they were super pretty too, maybe that's why he couldn't say no. Merlin, girls and their charm.

And while the beautifying potion business was sort of forgotten now, Charlie's mood changed from being annoyed to relieved. So Cameron's with Scotland? Very nice. "I tried out for England. I thought it'd be easy but there were a lot of good Chasers out there." Charlie thought being fast was enough, but he witnessed first hand how wrong he was. He had a lot more to learn in the next few months. "I didn't make it, but I'll try out again next year. I guess have to figure out my resits first before anything else. How are your matches coming along, by the way? Winning I hope!"