7 April 2012
8am on a Saturday
The morning after the full moon

The sun was already up when Figaro Sellaphix arrived to his flat so he had no need to turn on lights. The sound of birds and traffic came in through from the balcony along with a cool clear sun.  He ought to sleep, but he never could after an overnight shift at the werewolf safe house. He'd tried that before, only to wake at seven in the evening utterly discombobulated in a way no amount of caffeine could remedy. The wise thing in his twenty-year-old brain was to push through, make it a forty-eight hours and crash properly come sundown.

He kept himself up by making a bit of breakfast while downing a triple espresso from Blackwood. He'd learned about the joy and ease of cooking an egg in the pot with the packaged ramen from a friend and fancied himself quite the chef splashing in extra hot sauce. While it cooked, he shed his skin down to comfortable trousers only and threw open the door to the balcony so the cool breeze would keep him awake.

By now, he was fairly fluent with the iPhone that had been a gift from Sasha Snow several months ago, when he remembered it existed, of course, and if it was charged. Figaro enjoyed texting and Instagram. From the balcony, he could get a good magic-free signal most of the time as the enchantment on the old factory was mostly on the streetside of the building, not the back courtyard.

He balanced the saucepan in his lap as he carefully snapped a picture of Trouble the Crow or Raven who had come round to visit. She had a bit of red string today. She'd already taken away the whole-shell peanuts he'd left her the day before.



He'd strategically managed a day off from the Daily Prophet directly following the full moon and after a while he'd take the opportunity to play the dutiful son and stop by to see his mum. After he'd see if he could roust anyone for a bit of trouble and a bite once they were all off work. But for now, hot egg sauce pot ramen straight from the hob in one hand, twenty-two ounces of coffee in the other, and a crow on the railing.