Hogwarts AU: New York City

[serinusniger]

It's been days.

She doesn't know how many. But if must have been days. There's been food, there's been the occasional sleep.

Not enough of either.

Dinah has told them... she can't remember right now quite what she has told them, but it feels like she's told them everything. Like there's nothing in her lefty to tell them. She'd tell them more, if they asked her.

She gave up trying to escape a long time ago. She gave up hoping for a rescue not long after.

Now she's just waiting, and hoping it ends soon.

Comments

[interrogoiterum]

"Did someone offer you party then snatch it away?" Renee asks Raph with a smirk. When the man turns his back on them and starts walking towards the Brooklyn Bridge, she hurries to catch up with him.

"How do you know Professor Ross?"

He smirks at her. "I don't know her at all. But when she was just Leah Ross, we butted heads a few times."

[mnt_leo]

"When she was at the Agency?" Don hazards a guess.

Raph will not dignify Renee's question with an answer. At least, not with words. Though he can be heard grumbling somewhat as he takes his usual position of bringing up the rear.

Mike speeds up so that he's walking alongside Renee. He is the guy that runs point, after all. And well...the faster they get to the bridge the sooner he sees the skyline that makes New York.

Leo just walks, his wand clenched in one fist. Somewhere someone has Dinah, and he's going find them and kill them.

[interrogoiterum]

"Don't let her hear you insult her like that," he says. "She can be vicious when provoked."

The frown that Renee sends Don is one of wishing she could read his mind, or that he could read hers so they could compare notes."

The man continues: "No, Ross never worked for the Agency any more than I did."

"She was a Quidditch player," Renee says, slowly as she thinks.

[mnt_leo]

Don seems to take that less than veiled threat in stride. Also taken in stride? Renee's frown, which he sends back at her as if he understands what she's thinking at him.

Really, what he's doing is kicking himself for being rubbish at mental magic. It's a good thing he's amazing at technomancy...and that he's still recording. Later, when they're safely ensconced at Casey's apartment, he and Renee can go over the recordings with fine toothed combs and the new algorithms he's been working on.

"I'm sorry, question? Hi, yeah...who are you? And why are we following you?" Oh Mikey, out of the mouths of the completely non-threatening come the most bold of questions.

[interrogoiterum]

Renee stops in her tracks, letting Mike get a step in front of her before she catches up.

"That's Spot Conlon," she tells him, and it's partly asking the question.

The man in question shrugs one shoulder in answer.

To Mike: "He was keeper for the Brooklyn Bullets before they disappeared. At the same time Professor Ross was playing with the Arrows."

"Keeper and Captain," Conlon corrects.

[mnt_raph]

Raph stops walking.

"No. Fucking. Way. You are not Spot Conlon."
Because of the four of them, Raph's the only one who ever paid the slightest bit of interest in sports of any kind.

[interrogoiterum]

Conlon looks over his shoulder at Raph.

"Who else?"

By now, of course, they've reached the ramp up to the Brooklyn Bridge, and he leans against the barrier to the footpath, jerking his head behind him in the vague direction of Manhattan.

They can stay and talk, or they can go.

[mnt_raph]

"Who else," Raph says with hero worship in his voice as he elbows Don.
Don...doesn't get it, and it's clear that Don doesn't get it.

"Spot Conlon," Raph repeats for his sake. "He was the one of five keepers in all of Quidditch history to successfully pull a Morally Ambigious Teresa without losing so much as a finger or a toe!"

Still...nothing from Don.

"Against the Fitchburg Falcons? August 23rd? Any of this ringing a bell?"

Again...still nothing.

"What the hell kind of books do you read, man?"

Mike sidles up next to Conlon with a scrap of paper from one of his many pockets. "Could you sign this for him before this gets ugly? Please?"
Mike even has a pen on hand.

[interrogoiterum]

Conlon raises an eyebrow, but signs the paper.

"You kids get out of here," he says. "And tell that bird hanging out by City Hall to get gone, too."

It takes Renee, as the token British person in the group, a few seconds to realize he doesn't mean a woman.

[mnt_leo]

"Consider it done, Sir. And thank you," Leo replies, punctuating his polite response with a respective bow.

Raph and Don are still glaring at each other when Mike wedges his way between the two of them distracting Raph with the autograph.

[interrogoiterum]

Renee grabs Don by the elbow and pulls him with her towards the bridge.

"Tell me what you're thinking."

[mnt_don]

"That the retirement choices of ex-professional athletes are suspicious at least, and dubious at best."

Something about all of this doesn't add up correctly, and while Don might not have the answer right this second you can be damn sure he's working his way towards it.

[interrogoiterum]

"Makes you wonder how she lost her eyes, right?"

Renee lets Mike set the pace, sticking close to Don over the bridge.

[mnt_don]

"It makes me wonder a lot of things, but yeah...that's on the list for certain. I don't know that I'm particularly fond of these circumstances. There's just too many variables. Too many unknowns."

[interrogoiterum]

"I don't know that I'd be fond of any circumstances that involve a death run to save a friend of mine."

[mnt_mike]

"That's because you lack a sense of adventure," Mike says turning back to wink at Renee from his position at point.

"Focus, Mikey," Leo says with a long suffering sigh.

[interrogoiterum]

Renee rolls her eyes at Mike, shoots a concerned look at Leo, and looks back at Don, with a questioning glance.

Anymore to add?

[mnt_don]

Well there's the lingering after effects of an eye roll in Mike's direction, followed quickly by a very pensive confession.

"I've lived in and around this city for my entire life, and never once questioned why we never went to Brooklyn. I'm disappointed in myself for never having questioned why. I feel very exposed right now, and I don't like it."

[interrogoiterum]

"Memory charm? Something else?"

As the walkway gives way to an ordinary pathway and they walk down towards City Hall, Renee is distracted again by the sight of Mannattan.

Thinking back to Conlon's words, she looks around for a bird, but there are a few of them, pigeons and others.

A bird with a red breast, that looks nothing like the robins she is familiar with, is sitting on on of the bridge's cables.

[mnt_don]

"I'm not not sure."

Don loses himself in displeasing thought after displeasing thought. He's so preoccupied that he doesn't even notice Renee's distraction.

But Leo does, and he follows her gaze to the bird.

"Renee?" he asks her, without taking his eyes off the bird.

[thehim_heshouldbe]

It isn't that impressive bird. Just a run of the mill average looking American Robin.

Which ruffles its feathers when it notices the kids looking at it, and takes off from its perch.

What lands on the street, ignored by the New Yorkers around them, is a pair of battered sneakers, worn by a redheaded man wearing jeans and a leather jacket, his hands tucked into his pockets.

[mnt_mike]

"i have got to learn how to do that," Mike whispers in a hushed, yet no less full of awe, whisper.

Raph is less impressed, and while everyone else has stopped walking, he continues on, so as to make sure he's between his party and the newcomer.

[thehim_heshouldbe]

The newcomer glances at Raph, unsmiling, and then past him at the other four, looking them all over. He stops for a few seconds on Renee.

"Five kids walking over from Brooklyn. Guess she was right."

[mnt_mike]

"OH! You're the bird. I was so expecting to see a chick."

Don shushes his brother.

"Was she?" Leo says in a cool voice.

[thehim_heshouldbe]

"Usually is."

He establishes or nominates Leonardo as a leader and looks at him as he jerks his head up Centre Street and starts strolling that way, hands still in his pockets.