Sunshine and Butterflies {Gail}

Landon had not expected to be back in Hogsmede so soon. Or ever. It was a quaint place; quiet, homey, full of smiling shopkeepers and the occasional student from the school up the hill. Landon hated it.

He had a history here, and he did not know it. It was just another black hole in his life, a time and a place he could no more remember than the moment he was born. He knew it was true, however, thanks to that Headmistress and her records. Even she knew about his time here better than he did. It made him want to scream. Or have a drink. Or have enough drinks so that he didn't care anymore.

This was a business trip, though. Landon pictured the dusty bottle of brandy sitting at home on his kitchen table. It would have to wait.

Shaking off the unpleasantness of being here, Landon walked the streets until he reached a shop with a sign reading Madame Puddifoot's. This was one of the last places Landon had left to check. He hoped it wouldn't be so much of a dead end as the others.

All morning Landon had roamed Hogsmede, simultaneously making small talk with it's citizens and probing into their minds. He was looking for a specific memory, one that would not be hidden under layers and layers of nonsense in people's minds. One that stood out, that frightened them. One of a werewolf gone mad, racing through the streets with a lust for violence. Someone in this half asleep town had to know what he needed. What the Ministry had sent him here for.

It turned out some people did know. But of course nothing was ever that easy. The images he found in the handful of people that had seen the event were of little use. They showed a woman, tall and thin, back turned, rushing in to the forest that bordered the town. Now he just needed to know who that woman was, and where to find her. Then he could rush along this assignment, bring her back to some deep dark cell far from his own office, and have a drink.  

“'Morning,” Landon said to the woman inside the tea shop, a wide grin plastered on his face.

“Hello dearie. What can I get you?”

“Oh, I'll have...” He flipped through the menu, not really looking at it. “Just a sweet chai, thanks.”

While the old woman made his tea Landon took a seat at the counter and lightly closed his eyes. He let his mind enter hers, digging around for that same memory he had seen today from so many different perspectives. It was there in her mind, too. What he was happy to find, though, was that there was more than just that one memory of the tall woman. The tea shop owner knew the girl.  

“Thank you,” Landon said as he was handed his tea. His smile now was genuine. He almost had what he needed.  

“Say, I'm looking for a friend of mine. Haven't seen her in a few years, but heard she's staying around here. Dark curly hair, kind of tall. Very pretty.” He looked down into his tea, feigning a blush. “We, uh, used to have thing. Way back when.”

“Sounds like Gail,” the older woman said after a moment. “I bet she'd love to see you. I never did see her with a date, it's good to know she had someone once upon a time.”

“Gail, yes that's her.” Landon ran a hand through his hair, pressed himself forward against the counter, eager.  “Do you think you could tell me where she is? I'd really like to see her. And maybe you can tell me where the nearest flower shop is too?”

“Why, she's just upstairs dear. There's a stair way around the back of the building.”        

Some time later, his tea finished, Landon bid the old woman goodbye and left the shop. He headed around the building and started up the stairs, already imagining himself back home. The hard part was over. Now he just had to convince the girl to come with him, something that was never too difficult.

For the better half of the morning, Gail had been upstairs above the tea shop, where she rented a small room from Madam Puddifoot. After the whole ordeal in the woods with Sorrow and Nora, and the hyppogriffs, she couldn't allow herself to live in Hogsmeade any longer. There was a reason Gail didn't stay in one place for very long, and had Sorrow not intervened, she could have caused a lot more damage than she already had, what with killing Eleanora's hippogriff friend and scarring both her and Sorrow. She couldn't risk something worse happening, and already people in town were talking about werewolf sightings.

Gail hadn't mentioned this to Madam Puddifoot yet, she wasn't really sure how to. The elder woman had been so kind to her over these passed couple months, taking her in and allowing her to rent out the spare bedroom and work downstairs in the shop despite Gail being awful at brewing tea. And even knowing what Gail was, Madam Puddifoot still treated her with the same warmth she showed to everyone else, like she was everyone's grandmother. It was rare to meet someone so accepting. Gail was really going to miss her.

So as she contemplated how she would go about breaking the news to the loveliest old woman in the world, she busied herself with tidying up the room and throwing her laundry into the open suitcase on her bed, the articles of clothing seeming to vanish within the case as though it were bottomless. Sadly, it did not take long for Gail to finish packing, as she practically lived out of her suitcase no matter where she was. The rest of that morning was spent pacing about her room rehearsing how she would tell Puddifoot she was leaving.

"Madam Puddifoot, I'm so grateful that you've let me stay as long as I have here, but I'm afraid it's time I-" She sighed, somehow not able to form the words, "Madam Puddifoot, because of all that's happened, I have to-" She paused again, and then yelped as a knock came to the door so abruptly. "Madam Puddifoot?" Gail went to the door, taking a moment to straighten up her outfit so that she appeared decent. Normally she would have heard the older woman coming up the stairs, but she had been so occupied with her own babbling that she hadn't been as aware of her surroundings. 'Oh, please don't tell me she heard all that.'

"I'm not really in the mood for tea right-" She started as she opened the door, but stopped midsentence as she was faced with a stranger, and not the kind old woman she had expected. "Oh, uh, hello. Can I help you?" She smiled, now hoping that this man hadn't heard her rambling to herself either. She never got visitors, so what he was here for, Gail honestly had no clue. Perhaps he was lost, "The tea shop is downstairs, if that's what you were looking for."