There is nothing to writing.  All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.
~Ernest Hemingway

The school year was under way and Isaac found himself fighting hard to strike a balance and have a life off of the school grounds.  Really what he needed was a bit of a life for himself more then anything.  The past several years he had truly been living for everyone else.  Catering to the needs of others and ignoring his own had become a bit of a speciality for him.

Of course some of it had been family related and therefor a duty he gladly saw to without regret.  With the passing of his father in mid-July a chapter in his life had come to a close.  He had often used the excuse of family to explain why it was he gave up field work to be tied down at Hogwarts.  That was no longer a factor.

There was even a moment when he thought that perhaps he would leave Hogwarts now that his family's drama due to his father's illness was settling down.  He had accepted a job at the Ministry, but quickly realized it was not for him.  After a few years in the classroom he had developed a passion for teaching, and a passion for sharing his adventures with students.  No desk job at the Ministry was going to provide him with the same feeling that teaching did.

This year was going to be different though.  He had made a commitment to seek some sort of life off the grounds of the school.  So, on that particular Sunday afternoon he found himself sitting on a bench in Diagon Alley looking over the latest chapter from the manuscript of the book he had been working on for some time.  It was nearly finished, and the hope was that it would be published near Christmas time.

Noticing an error his brow furrowed a bit as he began to scribble through it.  He mumbled slightly as he re-wrote the sentence in the margin.

For years Lexus had always felt she was living someone else life. It had been far too long since she had truly enjoyed what she was doing, out in the wild living with a native tribe, attune with nature and producing potions she would have never learned to brew in school. After the incident she had been forced to work as a bartender which hadn't been for her, then a year on a run and her short lived career as Jonas' assistant, none of which had called her the way a cauldron did. Thankfully she was able to delve back into her passion now even if it meant making healing salves for criminals or hangover cures for drunkards.

However life in Knockturn Alley was weary and getting into the criminal underground was proving fruitless. Every so often, for the sake of her own sanity, Lexus had to venture out from her hole in the Alley and act the part of a regular witch. Today, that took place in the form of shopping and now that she was registered she no long had a paranoid fear of anyone wearing red.

Lexus walked down the cobbled street of Diagon, her hands laden with several bags of clothing as she headed back to her Apartment over Wonderland. As she neared the bench Isaac was relaxing on the tip of her shoe caught an uneven stone and with her bags weighing her down Lexus took a rather ungraceful tumble, "Dammit!"

There were moments in life when Isaac wished he had the ability to foresee certain events.  However, as he couldn't he was unable to do anything to really help the woman who had just caught her shoe as she tumbled in front of him.  By the time he realized what was happening it was simply too late.  The uneven streets in Diagon Alley were treacherous enough without the added danger of shoes women wore for fashion.

Quickly setting the manuscript aside on the bench he rose quickly to see if the woman had been injured.  With any luck it would merely be her pride that was hurt, but he wanted to be sure.  Chivalry wasn't completely dead, and he wasn't about to simply sit there.

"Are you alright?" he asked, extending a hand to her.  "These streets have been a bit of a hazard for as long as I can remember."  He had spent more then one summer shopping trip trying to keep female friends from ending up sprawled out on their faces thanks to high heels.

Lexus took the proferred hand and rose to her feet collecting up her strewn bags, "Thanks. I'm alright, little scuffed but nothing I can't walk off." She gave him a tight lipped smile. Her blood red lips may have been excused away with make up but the sharp fangs in her mouth were less easier to hide. Then again if her glowing golden eyes weren't enough to set anyone running then there may be some hope of meeting those outside of Knockturn still.

She looked to the stack of papers he had put on the bench in order to help her to her feet, "I hope I didn't interrupt too much. My mother always warned me about wearing ridiculous heels, maybe she was right." She gave a soft chuckle, her Canadian accent apparent though with all the witches and wizards coming in to watch the Tetra Wizard Tournament, it didn't make her stand out as much as it used to.

She cast her eyes around at the hem of her dress and the heels that had caught the stone, nothing was ripped or torn. There was a little dirt on her shoes but nothing she couldn't wash off, "It's been a while since I walked down here. With how clutzy I am in even runners I should've known better." Her closed mouthed smile this time shone with the hint of a blush on her cheeks.

Her accent was certainly not British, but that wasn't entirely surprising given the tournament currently going on at the school.  It was more likely with all the visitors that his own Scottish brogue was likely to stick out in the crowd.  He gave her a small smile in return and then assisted her with the retrieval of her bags once he was sure she would be fine.  Papers and work were momentarily forgotten until she mentioned interrupting.

"A mother's advice does have a funny way of getting you when you least expect it," he said.  "And please don't worry about the interruption.  I probably needed to step away for a moment."  His mother had always claimed that whenever he was working on a writing assignment or editing a manuscript he would end up giving himself extra wrinkles with all the brow furrowing.

"It's been a while since I walked down here. With how clutzy I am in even runners I should've known better."

With a slight smirk he said, "Well, I will never understand how women walk in those supposed shoes at all...let alone here."

Noticing her blush, he decided to perhaps try to ease a bit of the embarrassment and moved the manuscript off the bench.  Motioning to the empty seat he said, "Would you care to sit for a moment before giving it another go?"  There was also part of him that wanted to make sure she was truly alright.  Sometimes sprains and other injuries seemed to creep up after the shock had worn off.

"I"m Isaac, by the way," he added deciding to wait on extending he hand to her again until she accepted the invitation and set down the bags.

Lexus took his invitation with another tight lipped smile, the sparkle in her golden flecked eyes was enough to tell it was a genuine one. She remembered smiling like that when she had braces as a young teenager. Thankfully the awful metal contraptions hadn't been on her teeth for very long and she began to smile wide once again, now it was a matter of self preservation.

"I think that's the point of parents, to tell you advice you think is useless until you actually need it." She chuckled softly and sat on the bench where he had moved his papers from. She placed her bags neatly on the cobblestone by her feet bending over slightly to take a better look at the dirt on her heels making sure they weren't scuffed after all.

"Lexus," She offered, "Nice to meet you Isaac." She could feel the light blush that briefly coloured her cheeks. It had been a while since she had met a man she didn't suspect was a thief, a murderer or a dark wizard.

She glanced over at the manuscript again, "You must be a writer." She nodded towards his work, "no one would be needing a breather if they weren't obsessing over their own work." She smiled again, her lips parting ever so slightly this time.