Squeezed somewhere between Knockturn and Diagon was Blind Back Alley, a clever little maze of a long and winding street with a menagerie of useful and twisted stores. Inside one of its more eclectic shops, boxes rattled in dark corners, purses and cloths with designs shifting from Africa to Japan hung from the ceilings, furs and pots were stacked in tall piles, and many more exotic and curious objects littered the shop.

Over a tank crustaceans, a chocolate-toned witch with a mane of tight dreadlocks had artfully lifted out a crab from its rear and began a strict inspection of it with her dark half-lidded eyes, which framed by her strong dark brows and narrowed with dark lashes. Her shawl hung off her shoulders like the skirt of her dress unevenly wrapped around her legs as she leaned her tall form on the souls of her boots. With the biting stare she gave the young clerk, one might thing she were there on a mission from the Ministry, but her voice twisted and lilted like snake's:

"'Dis isn't from Africa's west coast, bwoy," her lips remained in a neutral and critical pout as her eyes rolled back onto the crab, "He's got th' life of 'di Mediterranean spirit in him." The clerk instantly donned a guilty and toothy smile as he tried to weave out another smooth salemans's line, but the with held up a long well-manicured finger, "Don' play more of your little lies on mi, chile."

"Oh, Madame Foley, he's new!" a grating voice emerged behind the boy with a worn and much older man, obviously the manager. He patted the boy on the back and pointed him to another customer, "Couldn't you be a little more pleasant to my new kids?"

"Tolerance is wasted on 'dem 'round his age, he should know better," she casually waved her free hand onto her hip. "'An' dere's not a t'ing in this puddle, Has he been too lazy to take anything up an' innit?" Delilah's eyebrows raised again as the manager held up a hand and disappeared again and she returned to inspecting the tank. She put the crab she held back into the tank and then retrieved a white and round pebble-looking thing, happily snapping at the air without so much as a care. It was what she was looking for, but she needed a few more of them to properly teach her daughter anything about voodoo spawning and quickly creating multiples of a small creature. One of the larger crabs in the tank could just be dinner.

Having been very unsure of this out of the way-shop, Jean-Baptiste was still not convinced of how much he could gain from this place as he heard a distinct and authoritative voice call out to the young store-clerk. From where he had been skulking among the shelves of the shop, he now turned a corner and saw an attractive young woman staring intently at the helpless young man behind the counter. Having not used any of the time he had spent checking out London to meet any women since he arrived in England, it was hard not to appreciate a strong woman. Whose name apparently was Foley-something. The manager sent the young clerk towards Jean, who slid at once into the foreign persona he used as his diplomat-brother's associate.

Keeping his focus on the young woman, Jean still gave some attention to the clerk, shaking his hand with both of his own, and using a low-lever spell he glanced over the man's surface thoughts, filing him away as a possible recruit. Then he asked for a list of any eggs and youngling creatures they might have in stock, and watched him scuttle off into the back room. Jean resumed trying to watch the woman, as discreetly as he could.

Interesting, he thought. She obviously knew something about the real kind of voodoo.... It was difficult trying to keep himself from using any spells to find out more, as someone knowledgeable with that kind of magic might notice it, and being as anonymous as possible was his best weapon so far. Perhaps he should simply start a conversation with her?

As the store manager disappeared into the back Delilah eyed the crab in her hand, making a basic connection with it's mind, a very simple thing that simply conveyed a slight sense of panic and offense at its current predicament.The witch then pressed her lips together and breathed through closed teeth, shushing the crab like the sound of a rolling wave. The crustacean calmed down and an image of the ocean floor faded to the forefront of its thoughts, along with coral, othe sea creatures, and other crabs; it gave Delilah the amount of information she needed to know the thing was wild and indigenous to the right waters.

Her lips pressed together contently, until the little creature looked at someone behind her and then curled itself under its shell. Delilah rolled her eyes in mild annoyance before she looked behind her and eyed the tall man and the young clerk talking to him. Clearly the dark-skinned stranger was not paying attention to the clerk, "Dyou need somet'ing?"

Her voice startled the boy who looked between the two customers with confusion.