November 14th - around midday.

Arianna stepped out from Flourish and Blotts, onto the cobbled street of Diagon alley, a large paper bag tucked under one arm and numerous bags hooked over the other. There was a chill in the wind that made her pause to pull her cloak tight around her. A mumbled spell served to add a little warmth to her bones. The balmy and steaming summer weather of her last few months abroad had left her constantly shivering and numb in the cold and wet November weather that had welcomed her back to England. It was taking some getting used to, even for her and Arianna was known for her adaptability.

Very few things stayed the same. Arianna's own life, like many before her, had been constantly in flux. Ever since she had left home she had been always on the move, never committing to one place long enough to call it home for one reason or another - usually for the very pressing need to prevent incarceration and yet.... something drew her back here. It wasn't a reasonable longing, in fact entirely illogical in the face of the risks that accompanied being known to others in her profession, and yet, there is was - an unexplainable, unstoppable force that pulled  her back to the place of her very beginning.

The wind howled around the redbricked corner behind her as she started to walk down the street, trying to avoid the many puddles on the floor. Strong enough to bend a full grown oak to its will, it made little work of her appearance sending her once tightly bound ringlets into a mass of hair that gave her the appearance of a rather disgruntled yeti - a rather well dressed yeti with perfectly manicured nails but a yeti nevertheless. It was not quite the look she was going for and, perhaps even more importantly, she could no longer look where she was going.

A light blue ribbon was tied around her wrist, perfect for pulling back her hair from her eyes and yet she still had a problem: too many bags, a soggy floor and, alas, only two hands made her simple task a little more complicated then it should have been. She stood there for a moment, the ribbon between her teeth as she switched between her wand or the warm shop behind her for her salvation.

Lexus strode down Diagon Alley tightly wrapped in her travelling cloak. She had only just returned to London and had apparated into the familiar street. She would have just popped into her flat but didn't want to alarm her neighbours. She was trying to take all precautions she could to make sure the muggles that lived around her didn't find out about her use of magic, even though she rarely used it. She had spent the last few days in a cave in the side of a mountain just outside of Hogmeade, it had become one of her regular haunts. Even with Daz's improved Wolfsbane potion she still went through a complete transformation during the full moon and was only slightly aware of what was happening around her.

Jonas thought she was out gallivanting around town with an old school friend which the more she thought about it the more ridiculous it sounded. It had been a very long time since she had been in school and she hadn't even kept in contact with her friends when she left school let alone more recently. After school she had spent two years amoungst a native tribe learning their forms of magic and then she had returned home only after she was attacked by a werewolf pack and the next two years had been spent on probation where there was no possibility of keeping in touch with anyone she had gone to school with and now after a whole year spent in the wilderness across the United Kingdom Jonas was supposed to believe that one of her friends from school five years prior had actually sent her an owl to see if they could spend her birthday with her while they were in town? What rubbish.

Despite the wind Lexus' hood was down, her hair flying around her head as if it had a life of it's own. She looked sickly and pale, the way she always did right after a full moon. Thankfully with the wolfsbane potion she wasn't down and out for the entire day like she was when she transformed without it. She was walking down the cobbled stone path between the wizarding shops, not really paying attention to where she was going. Lexus stopped just in time to keep herself from bowling AriAnna over, "Oh sorry."

She took a moment to examine the woman trying to juggle shopping bags with a ribbon around her wrist that she was holding tightly in her mouth. Judging by the way the wind was whipping at her Lexus assumed she was trying to tie her hair up and out of her face. She paused before cocking her head to the side slightly, "You need help?"

Arianna's eyes were streaming, having just been whipped in the eye by a particularly unruly lock of hair. She struggled to see Lexus through her tears and didn't notice the near collision, though she heard her offer of help and accepted it with whatever grace she could muster.

"Please. If you could just hold these for just a moment. " She told her, offering her bags to her, hoping that whoever she was speaking to was entirely unlike herself and perhaps a little trustworthy. It was a great leap of faith, Arianna didn't trust easily and was only made a little easier by the fact that the items she was gambling with were of little expense.

"Then I can just tie this mess back and maybe save my sight. " She added with a small laugh.

Her humour went a little deeper than the outward comedy of the situation, the irony of the scene was not lost on her. The rather amusing truth of the matter was, she was a metamorphmagus. She could have changed her hair length, colour or style without breaking her stride  - a very simple solution to her current predicament, had she not been restricted by a very real and pressing need to maintain a certain level of discretion. Her abilities in the art of disguise were a much needed and much utilized, tool of her trade - one that kept her in work and out of Askaban. The less people knew of it the better.

Lexus had a habit of coming across kindred spirits without even realizing it. First it was Jonas, who had his own beef with the ministry, then Daz who was a criminal by trade and now Arianna who was trying to be just as inconspicuous as she was. Lexus was running into more thieves and bandits these days than she knew what to do with and she was loving every minute of it. Perhaps she was just finally accepting her new lot in life.

Lexus smiled softly accenting the dark circles under her eyes and nodded to the woman who at this moment was comprised mostly of curls. She took the packages she had handed over so that she had both hands free to tie back the mass amount of hair she was currently sporting. Lexus looked at the packages with a mild curiosity. Even with accepting a new sort of lifestyle she wasn't about to start stealing from innocent people. It was a completely different matter when it came to confunding muggles into taking her out to dinner or buying her new clothes, she probably could have done that all on her own charm but the help of magic made it a sure thing.

She watched the woman tie back her hair, noticing the perfectly manicured nails and the hint of makeup her face wore once it was visible. It made her feel that perhaps she should start paying attention to her own appearance again. It had been nice to get a new wardrobe but perhaps she'd have to get a new style to go with it. She just had no idea how to go about that sort of thing.

When Arianna was finished she handed her bags back to her, "Looks good."
 

Arianna bound her curls back with ribbon, freeing her face and her vision with a sigh.

"Much better. Thank you. "

She smiled softly as Lexus handed the packages back to her. An honest one - something many professed and few could truly claim....she knew that better than most. She wondered for a moment, whether the woman would have acted the same way if she knew what she was. Perhaps she would have done - some people were kind no matter who the recipient, besides, she reasoned, there were far worse than her out there. There was nothing in her past that she wouldn't do again.

It was not the first time she had tried to tell herself that. She still didn't truly believe it.....there was one thing...at least one thing.

"Looks good."

 “Perhaps a little more tidy at least but you're kind to say it.” She answered with a rueful grin. The expression was a little less controlled than her usual repertoire. It made her look younger somehow.

“And thank you again, for saving this from the puddles.” She said, lifting one of the larger but thinner looking packages.

“Sheet music from Flourish’s never seems to survive the simplest of liquids for some reason – the notes continually shuffle for days after. It gives you quite the head ache.“  She explained.

“Which would never have done, Mr Pendleford made a special request for it for his son’s party tomorrow. Though I doubt Charlie will thank him for it. I don’t think he’s much of a fan of the classics. “ She confided with a small smirk.

“Are you going? .......to the party I mean. “




 

 

Lexus smiled and felt a little embarrassed. To be honest she truly did think it looked nice. With the curls out of the way one was able to see that rather pretty and young looking face the woman had. Then again Lexus wasn't very good with that sort of thing, as her own unruly curls were evidence of. She never really bothered with her hair much. She used to wear it in a ponytail at school when it got too long and when she was living with her tribe they had arranged it in ornate braids that kept it out of her potions but it had always been one of the elder women who had done it for her. Working at the Lunar she usually just threw it back with a hair band, since running through the wild of the United Kingdom she had completely given up on trying to do anything with it and had gotten perhaps a little too used to missing out on simple creature comforts.

"No worries." She smiled again trying to be as pleasant as she could to the woman. She was weak and felt nauseated. She was sure if she didn't eat anything soon she'd pass out and she was much more keen on passing out in her own bed than in the middle of Diagon Alley. Passing out in public was only going to bring her trouble she couldn't afford, if one person saw even a fraction of the scars that littered her back it would all be over, "I know the feeling, I had to lug a whole new wardrobe around a few weeks back,  I think at least one dress was ruined by the rain." She tried to make her story relevant without making it sound too . . . muggle.

When the other woman inquired about the Pendleford birthday soiree Lexus paused and weighed her options. She had no idea who Mr Pendleford was but judging by the way the woman spoke of him he was well known in this part and for her to ask a complete stranger if she was going to his son's birthday party than it must be a very important occasion. Lexus saw herself having two options. Either she admitted that she had no idea who Pendleford was and outcast herself more than she already was by being a noticeable foreigner or she lied and pretend to know exactly what she was talking about. She was already feeling horrible so she figured there was no harm in playing along.

"Yeah, I'm going. I guess I'll see you there. Are you a musician?"

"You are! Great." She said, looking a little relieved. She eased some cards from her one of her robe pockets with some difficulty - bringing her to the main reason for her question.

"Charles gave me these invites yesterday and asked me to give them out to....well "anyone interesting" was his only stipulation. I think he's worried that his party will be filled with middle aged friends of his father and he wanted something a bit more lively than that. " She told her with a rueful grin.

In truth, she believed there was more mischief in it than that. Charles was furious with his father, that much had been painfully obvious when she had rehearsed for him the night before last. She didn't know why, but it seemed to her that ensuring that his father's distinguished, exclusive soiree turned into a party/free for all, was more for revenge then his simple amusement.

"Please, take some, in case you know of anyone else who might want to come. " She told her, handing her the invites, rather glad to be getting rid of them. She had given out two but had quickly run through her rather wan list of noncriminal acquaintances that she still had some semblance of contact with and in truth didn't want to be surrounded by people who knew her. Strangers were much better.

" I play the piano. " She told her, answering her last question.

"So I'll be playing for the first hour but then, hopefully,  free to enjoy the rest."

Lexus was starting to regret having played along. Was this woman actually expecting to see her at the party? Was she expecting her to be some important guest that knew the family well? She had no idea what was going through the woman's mind but struggled to keep her weak smile on her lips when she was handed a stack of extra invitations for the party. Her smile had started out weak due to the nauseated feeling in her stomach but faltered as she was beginning to feel caught up in her stupid white lie.

Then again there was no reason not to go to the party now. She had an invitation and could always fluff out something about some lame servant forgetting to put her name on the guest list. She wondered if it would be wise to try and get into such an event. If she did, she'd have to get a new dress and make sure it was still fashionable and comfortable without showing any of her scars. As for the rest of the invitations well she could always toss them. She couldn't invite Jonas, that would just raise too many questions and the only other person she knew in London was Daz and she doubted whoever this Charlie Pendleford was, would want an illegal potions mistress at his birthday party.

She waved the invites with a big stronger of a smile, "I'll see who I can wrestle up with these." She hoped she was coming off as believable. Having spent the last four years living the life of someone else she had gotten rather good at acting completely non chalant when not being herself but this soon after a full moon, even with the wolfsbane potion, she wasn't exactly up to her usual shenanigans. She kept thinking about how wonderful her bed would be right now but didn't want to be rude to the lady afterall. Serves her right for trying to be a good citizen.

"Well at least you get to enjoy the party. It would suck if you had to play all night and watch everyone else have fun, but then I suppose that comes with the territory right?"