Ophelia and Johann's St Mungo's Fundraiser Date
The National Museum of Wizarding History was a popular place for children to be taken during the holidays, and a haunt for adults of the wizarding world who came to attend the lectures and talks by visiting historians and artefact experts. Johann had spent quite a number of hours enjoying the different displays on his own in the past year
[1], and more recently, hiding behind them to prevent being struck with curses
[2].
Still, it was less romantically themed than many of the potential venues
[3] he had considered through January to bring Ophelia Grimlish. Back at new year, he had been entered into the St Mungo's charity date event by his father, who had decided that at 33 it was high time his only son got a woman, and then got married. Unfortunately the week before, on Christmas Day, Johann had actually proposed to one of his best friends, Hannah Bombay, before her parents in a huge misunderstanding
[4]. This eventually made absurd news in the Prophet thanks to Hannah's over enthusiastic mother, Cynthia
[5]. It had taken some explaining, particularly as the original advert, written by Wolfgang had been incredibly purist, and borderline offensive to Johann.
Now it was February, and Valentines Day was in the forefront of the minds of the majority of the population, including Johann who wondered if it was appropriate to be taking a pretty, clever young woman on a 'date' so close to this traditional celebration of love, particularly as he potentially had become involved with a man in the past few weeks, unexpectedly. Feeling he owed a decent evening to Grimlish, he had pushed all thoughts aside to at least ensure she had a good night, though he had a suspicion he would too, from what he'd heard of her.
He had greeted her in the dark with his bright smile outside the front of the museum, which had the front of a Victorian house turned hotel,
no vacancies hung on the sign. In the foyer he opened the door to a wardrobe, and invited Ophelia to step inside first. It was probably familiar to her, but it was polite to let her descend the stairs within first.
The darkness had seeped away to reveal a vast hall where they had been able to attend an informative lecture from a wizard with an extraordinary moustache. He had brought over a new collection of exhibits to loan the museum from a private collection, and it was due to open the following week once everything was in place.
The talk that evening was a preview of some of the pieces, from beautiful carvings on early cauldrons to photographs of a most fragile text which was the centrepiece of the exhibition, supposedly the first known book on magic written in English, well, very old English.
From the front row, they had a good view, and Johann glanced between the speaker and his twitching moustache which seemed to be alive, to the few items presented, to Grimlish sat beside him, and smiled to himself. Hannah had been the one to suggest the museum, and this was only the first part of their evening.
When a round of questions had been exhausted and a ripple of applause rang through the assembled crowd, the talk was finally over and Johann leaned over a little to Grimlish.
“Enjoy that?” He asked, smiling, “What do you reckon, do you think it really
is the oldest book, or just an old book?”
Around them other visitors were getting to their feet, heading back to ascend the staircase, returning to the cold February air outside. A few had dwindled to admire the cauldron and study the photographs of the 'oldest book', enthused to attend the exhibition when it opened.
“Care to take a closer look?” He asked Ophelia, his smile turning a little more mischievous, “Our evening doesn't end with a photograph of it, you see...”
[Feb 12] And Did Those Feet in Ancient Time