1630 hours, just in front of The Inkwell.


Sipping from a little liquor bottle and leaning against the window display, Virgi waited for Nemo to arrive. They had agreed to meet at this hour, the day after Guy Fawkes. A bundle of dried lavender was secured to his belt, a smudge of marmalade besmirched his right cheek - he had come straight from wandering the farmer's market. The appointment had been made by owl, last week, but he was still nervous.

Stupid of him. They had charms for piercings, it wouldn't even hurt!

The familiar witch finally made an appearance, turning into Knockturn Alley, and Virgil stood up straighter with a wry smile. "Have you decided if you're getting one too?" he asked by way of greeting, "or were you thinking of a tattoo, maybe? I'm told Eisenberg's a cracking artist."

Tattoos weren't Virgil's thing. He liked having a clean slate of skin. Flesh, on the other hand? Flesh would heal. There were charms for scarring, too. He offered his bottle to Nemo and slipped his hands into his coat pockets.

"It isn't a big deal, I realise," the young wizard admitted thoughtfully, "yet I feel like it is..." he trailed off, looking at her as if though to ask: why is that?

Nemo was easy to spot in the long shadows of a Knockturn Alley November afternoon. Her shaggy light blonde hair was pulled through the back of a black trucker hat in a birds' nest of a bun. She had on layers, the outermost a red plaid flannel jacket and heavy red boots. As ever, she was laden with a large satchel.

"Ever the seasonal fashionista," she said coming up to Virgil. He always looked smart. Virgil handed her a bottle, but she waved it away. Did she want a piercing as well? She shrugged.

"Dunno yet. Going to see how I feel, you know? Look for a sign."

Nemo already had a silver ring through her nostril, which she'd gotten in a muggle shop when she was thirteen. She had nearly passed out from the shock of it! But maybe enough years had passed that she'd forgotten enough to have another poke. Nemo has almost tackled Virgil when he asked her to join him in this, his penetrating quest. Did she want to see him get his nipple pierced? Yes!? A bit of consensual blood and gore was the best friend-date she could imagine.

"Dude, it's totally a big deal," she said as they walked down the cobbled pavement. "Adorning the body is, like, cross-culturally one of the oldest traditions ever. It's like, taking ownership of yourself, making a mark. The body is constantly growing and changing and dying, but scars and piercings? They represent a moment in time. A choice. Baller."

As she spoke, her intensity crescendo'd and then waned. She looked up at him. "And since you're not using any pain-relieving spells, it'll be even better."

            "They represent a moment in time. A choice. Baller."

He was, in his own way, a great believer of looking at life through an artistic lens. Nemo's description romanticised today's decision even more than Virgil was used to, however, and he laughed a little diffidently as he slipped the bottle back into his coat. Taking ownership over himself? Was he? Perhaps. All his life had been about owning his mind, maybe now it was time for his physical self.

"Wait, what?" Virgil exclaimed, pushing open the door that led into The Inkwell. "I didn't say I wasn't using a numbing charm! It's my nipple, that's going to feel like a devil's bite!" he patted his chest self-consciously at the thought.

Inside the parlour, there was a little silver bell at the unmanned reception desk. A drinking and lounging area lay beyond the desk - so did a set of stairs leading down to where he presumed the magic happened. The air was thick with the scent of old wood, spilled whisky, smoky lavender. Nobody was around; a little card sign instructed them to ring the bell and be patient.

D-ing! D-ing!!

He turned back at Nemo while they waited in the foyer. "I'll ask him how much it will hurt," Virgil decided aloud, "and perhaps I'll go without the charm. I've had my ears done before and it wasn't horrid."

It had been for Stardust's run ofRapunzel and Virgil had insisted on piercing his ears so that he could wear his mother's emerald earrings as part of the costume. If he could do it for a play, he could do it for himself too.

Nemo was aghast!

"Whaaat...!" she wailed following Virgil into the shop, trailing off as he explained his reticence.  What was the point of body modification if you didn't feel it? Ironically, the magic of the act was the feeling. Numb it up and what is it but some silly enchantment?

She leaned on the counter facing him, looking disappointed.

Nemo had never been to a magic tattoo parlor and this one was certainly more different than she'd ever seen. The Inkwell had almost the vibe of a cross between a chapel and a storage closet; an appropriate ambiance  for their errand, for sure. But she did wonder how many customers just skipped out merrily without the rush of endorphins and and the feeling of having conquered something?

(Many lofty thoughts for a girl who'd just had her ears and nose done ... )

"If I do it magic-free, will you?"

She made a face. "I mean, not my nipple but something."

"C'mon... I'll write you a song..." she sang trying to convince him.

            "C'mon... I'll write you a song..."

"You know I can't resist that," he complained in an amiable tone just as footsteps on the landing behind the desk alerted them to the approach of a wizard. And what a wizard! Virgil smiled to himself as he watched Dietrich Eisenberg greet them from the other side of the counter with a friendly wave. Little had changed about him since the sex education panel at Hogwarts earlier in the year. Eisenberg had been one of the speakers, then.

Dietrich slid over a large guest book. "Clear-headed and consenting, yeah?" he said with a grin and handed over a heron feather quill. "We got all day."

It must be a slow afternoon. Sighing softly, Virgil wrote and signed his name in the ledger. He passed both quill and book to Nemo before turning back to the older wizard.

"I'd like to do it without any numbing charms," he decided and felt rather pleased when his voice didn't convey what a horrible idea it actually was. "Nemo's here to hold my hand if I need it."

The tattoo artist checked over the book, glancing up for only a moment to acknowledge this. He gestured for the pair of them to join him behind the counter as he headed for the stairwell leading to the piercing parlour downstairs. There were noises coming from some of the other rooms - murmurs, the busy whirring of mechanical devices, a Wireless tuned to old songs from the 1950s. Down here, the scent of lavender was more pronounced.

Nemo was as stunned as smitten with the norse god of a wizard who appeared. She touched her neck and tried to stand a little taller.

She hissed a triumphant little, "yissss," when Virgil declared his intention to follow the path of the wicked and get the piercing done painfully and properly. Virgil put down his name, and before they left the counter, Nemo snipped up the quill. The honorable and adventurous thing to do would be make good on her promise to accompany Virgil on his journey.

Dietrich put his hand on the book, then asked Virgil,

            "How old is she?"

"Eighteen," Nemo answered for herself, already starting to sign 'Nemo'. It was a lie, and he could probably tell.  She'd only just last month hit seventeen; and she looked younger than she was, round faced and short. For the moment, the technicality was ignored by Dietrich.

Virgil and Nemo followed along the way she leaned against his shoulder.

"I'm so proud of you," she said to Virgil in a cartoonish impression of a Minnesotan mother. "So brave, getting your nipple pierced just like yer dad."

The piercing parlor was starkly different in decor and tone to the rest of what she'd seen of The Inkwell. It looked like a hospital. She was surprised to see the same cold steel tools she'd seen in the parlors back home. Nemo took off her jacket and set it on a chair and deposited her bag in the same.

All around the room hung creepy Victorian anatomical illustrations with shimmering purple icons applied over top to show the different piercings. Nemo perused them like a grim menu, stopping to linger at one depicting a close-up of an ear, with all its nebular contours and crevices. A half dozen purple marks adorned it, labeled in swoopy doctors' script. She turned to Virgil and pointed.

"Look at this one. It's called a rook." She'd been a crow for Halloween. "What do you think?"

He kept forgetting that Nemo was younger - and, in fact, would be two whole years younger after his birthday on the twenty-ninth. Eisenberg didn't seem to care or mind from what his expression conveyed; this was Knockturn, and Virgil assumed The Inkwell had far more nefarious affairs to be worried about. Besides, if you lost The Trace at seventeen, why can't you do this?

            "So brave, getting your nipple pierced just like yer dad," Nemo jested as he pondered wand restrictions.
"Edgar had both of his pierced once," he laughed, "now that you mention it."

The photo albums in the Carstairs household were full of Edgar's many adventures in self-expression. Piercings, tattoos, bold fashion choices. Many of them next to Virgil's mother, who always looked like she had just stepped out of a Parisian dressmaker's.

Once they reached the piercing room, he pulled himself on to a flat bed in the centre and watched the witch browsing the walls. She looked like she was enjoying herself; his own insides were turbulent. In a good way. Dietrich's back was turned to them while he sorted out his instruments on a counter.

"It looks cute," Virgil squinted from afar at the photograph Nemo was pointing out. "Subtle, not too transgressive. I bet it's bloody painful, though. And won't your hair get caught in it all the time?"

Their host approached the table, wheeling over a brass stand with gleaming instruments laid out. "Shirt off, on your back."

Virgil exchanged a look with his friend, raising one coquettish eyebrow as he threw off his coat and pulled his t-shirt over his head.

Nemo disregarded Virgil's warning about the cartilage piercing, a flop of her hand and a, "pshaw."

She came around to the other side of the table, more the better to provide emotional support. Dietrich rolled closer on his chair snapped on some gloves and swabbed down Virgil's little pink nipples with antiseptic. Nemo picked up Virgil's hand and gave him a little kiss on his knuckles. Then she jumped as if she remembered something.

"Wait, wait. Ahem. I've prepared something for the occasion."

She hadn't, really, but Nemo was keen on ad-libbing lyrics.

"Listen well, prince, this ode I've writ:
Not the lip, nor the 'just the tip'.
Both ears our boy'll skip.
This won't hurt a bit. Stiff upperlip.
Oh kind Merlin, please bless these nips."

Dietrich smiled with a hint of deviousness, either at the intercession or the needle he was preparing.

     "You ready?"

   "...Oh kind Merlin, please bless these nips."
            "You ready?"

Virgil sat up on his elbows abruptly, mouth open in indignation. "Nips? Plural? It's just the one! The right one," he gestured expressively at the right side of his chest, which caused Dietrich to chuckle like the ominous blonde bear he resembled (this impression wasn't helped any by the wand and needle in his hand).

He lay back down with a childish huff, cheeks flushed from the mild panic of having both his nipples pierced. It was important that only one got done. The asymmetry of it pleased him - for now anyway.

This  was going to be fine. Nemo's little kiss and song had made him feel less worri--

"-- OH!!" Virgil exclaimed as Dietrich used a charm to clamp his right nipple tightly. The older wizard paused long enough to utter a quick explanation and countdown so that he would know when to breathe out for the pain. For a moment, all sensations felt tightly focused on a small part of him. Three... two...

In spite of the warning, Virgil ended up breathing in just as the needle went through. It came out as a strangled gasp and he instinctively grabbed the side of the bed. His nails dug into the leathery material. "Fuck," he hissed while the other side of the bar piercing was secured.

           "You said it," Dietrich laughed before taking a step back. "Don't sit up just yet."

"I wouldn't dream of it," Virgil replied honestly, pained expression quickly replaced by one of relief. The awful part was over! "So?" he turned his head to look at Nemo and smiled, because the adrenaline was hitting him now. "How does it look?"

Nemo didn't decide until the last breath whether to watch the needle or Virgil's face. Ever the supportive sort, Nemo kept her face as serene as she could manage, and did alright considering what she was watching. Her own nipples twinged in sympathy and she unconsciously curled her shoulders. As she watched, deft though Dietrich was, the needle seemed to take an overly-long second to poke in. Then eek! Nemo made a face, Virgil writ his own ode, and behold!

She looked down. As promised, a tidy little silver barbell was stuck through.

She furrowed her brow and looked back up to Virgil.

"Wait, you said right side, I thought ..."

Nemo corrected her joke immediately; the man had just had a needle to the nip after all, and was not in want of any further jabs.

"No, no, it looks good. Very cute. How do you feel? Worth it without the charm, I hope."

It was difficult to ignore the throbbing ache in his nipple but Virgil was still coming down from the high of the exhilaration. He felt good. He felt like getting more piercings! Not that he was going to - it was probably the high telling him to do that. Better to sleep on ideas involving needles.

            "How do you feel? Worth it without the charm, I hope."

"I feel wonderful. Worth it. I want to go do something!" Virgil exclaimed lightheartedly while Dietrich cleaned up the piercing one last time. "Let's go see a show. Or ride a rollercoaster. Is Winter Wonderland open ye-- ah!"

The older wizard had tweaked his nipple and adjusted the barbell slightly. "Sorry." Dietrich smirked. "Looks fine, you can get up now, kid."

Virgil sat up on the bed, blushing, and immediately glanced down at his chest. Nemo was right. The piercing looked good, though the skin around the pink of his areola was rather sore now. He loved it. A shame he wouldn't really be able to show it off until spring; perhaps he could get away with a thin white tee at The Closet.

"Brilliant," he murmured and grinned at the piercer. "Thank you kindly!"
           
            "You're welcome. Just need to go over some aftercare tips," the blonde bear replied cheerfully before looking at Nemo. "What about you, eh? Made up your mind?"

Nemo laughed at Virgil's new rush of vigor and purpose, feeling rather satisfied she'd convinced him to go charm-free. She was happy for him. She took out her flip-phone to snap a grainy picture, but snapped it closed again - Knockturn didn't love electronics apparently.

She tucked the phone back in her bag then crossed her arms to continue to have a look at Virgil's new adornment. It really was kind of fun. Little glint of silver just hanging out there. Cute little secret just for whoever Virgil cared to share with.

"It does look good," she restated. "I thought it was going to bleed."

"Some do," Dietrich informed her. "Still might." He didn't seem worried.

Dietrich was wrapping up with Virgil; now for Nemo's half of the bargain.

"What about you, eh? Made up your mind?"

She hopped up to sit in the available space next to Virgil on the table, and started re-arranging her hair and cap to make sure her ears and neck were bare and clear.

"Rook," she said, pointing to her right ear. Her nose piercing was on the left - didn't want to tip over. She had a decently distinct antihelix in the bowl of her ear - the piercing would have to go through a thick span of cartilage.

"You got it. Numbing charm?"

Nemo threw up a small rock-n-roll horns and shook her head.

Dietrich nodded, and began his preparations. Nemo took Virgil's hand, closed her eyes and steadied her breathing.

She had plenty of warning and a count-off, but she was not prepared.

"Mother of pearl!" she gasped, not unlike Virgil's shocked reaction. Still with her eyes closed, she pursed her lips to ease out a breath, all the while gripping Virgil's poor hand tightly. She tapped around with her free hand, patting the bed and eventually Dietrich's beefy arm.

A bit more fiddling and the gently curving bar was in.

"There you go."

"Does it look amaaaazing?" she asked with a strained hoarse whisper.

Praise Merlin that it did not bleed.

He doubted that his fainting spell[1] from May would repeat itself but he wouldn't exactly have been thrilled about it either. Virgil continued to sit next to Nemo, holding her hand throughout her piercing while processing the discomfort of his own. It made him feel somewhat... giddy.

She grasped his hand tightly and he barely stopped himself from hopping off the table in surprise. Virgil leaned forward, angling for a better look at her other ear.

            "Does it look amaaaazing?"

He pried her fingers off, slipping on to his feet so that he could see the rook in its entirety. Dietrich had stepped back to observe it as well, arms crossed like a thoughtful Adonis.

"I like it." Virgil smiled, absently going to touch his aching nipple and then stopping. "It's cute. Like a little surprise inside your ear. A gift to the eyes.," he glanced at the older wizard. "What are the healing times? Please tell me it doesn't get worse than this."

Dietrich was already reaching into a drawer for a couple of parchment sheets; he placed them both on the bed, nodding at the neat print pointedly. Aftercare instructions.

            "Depends, yea? If you're handy with a healing charm, any time you want. Or I can do it for you for free, just walk-in. Don't go to St.Mungo's, they might not do it right. Otherwise?" he gestured at their respective piercings. "A week for the girl, 'bout a month for you."[2]

A month was a long time. Virgil examined his chest with a doubtful expression, touching the delicate skin just below the curve. He sighed and tapped Nemo's knee playfully. "What do you think?

1.	15th May - Fainting Robin
2.	I shortened the estimate healing times for muggles because I'm assuming wizards heal quicker (or differently anyway).

Nemo took the mirror Dietrich handed her and turned her head this way and that, lifting and tipping her jaw to get a good look. It did look cool. It was already starting to get a red. She gingerly touched the edge of her ear - not the piercing - and was returned a painful twinge.

Her impaler got them both set up with literature and advised on healing time. Virgil, sweet Virgil, was again tempted with magical remedies for the joys and pains of living. She dropped her jaw and clutched at imagiary pearls in scandal.

"No! For f-! You are impossible, dear."

She hopped down from the table and politely declined the healing charm.

"None for me, thanks. I choose to live. I choose to feel something," she said with a wink on the last part for Virgil's sake. Nemo considered she might be pushing him to far and then added on.

"Sorry, Virg, you do you. It's not my nip. No judgement."

            "None for me, thanks. I choose to live. I choose to feel something," Nemo declared, making him laugh.

Virgil glanced at the sheet they'd been given, scanning the aftercare instructions and wondering if he would be doing anything on level nine that would get in the way of a naturally healing wound - like swimming in the tank of the Brain Room or something equally icky. He didn't mind a little pain but he also knew that sometimes it was better not to experience it unnecessarily.

"A normal healing charm?" he glanced back at Dietrich, who was tidying up the room with surprisingly gentle wand movements. "I'll do it myself then, or pop in next weekend."

            "Sure, just give it a couple days before or you'll heal your flesh into the piercing and it might get rejected," the blonde bear smiled. "You can get dressed now, lemme just do a light protection charm. Abrasion, y'know."

A tingling came over his chest and, with that over, Virgil grabbed his clothes and began to dress again. He was careful when pulling this shirt over the piercing - he'd be feeling it all day, if not all week, and the thought was strangely pleasurable. A secret under his clothes.

His life was saturated with secrets. "I think that's it," he smiled dryly at Nemo, folding up the aftercare parchment to slip into his coat pocket. "Should we go do something, truly? Winter Wonderland?"