Back in Hogsmeade.

[veloxepistola.livejournal.com]

It's been a very long couple of weeks, and Inara is pleased like she hasn't been in a while to be back in her apartment above the bookshop. She goes downstairs after apparating into her bedroom in order to pick up her mail that arrived while she was away (not much, all told) and to check in with Ivy.

Afterward, it is just Inara in the storefront, changing the window displays for the week.





Right before dinner, Inara also takes a walk around the town. Nice to get the ground under your feet sometimes.

[ooc: catch her either place.]

Comments

[veloxepistola.livejournal.com]

"I'm not sure I was referring to the teachers."

But they're bordering on topics that might be best addressed somewhere not on the main street of town.

Inara smiles lightly. "I should be going, most likely."

They're loitering?

[veneficusvenato]

"Indeed." Jo looks if anything, more amused.
Quietly. Copper eyes bright. Lips curved.




Something so telling about Inara. "Plans?"

[veloxepistola.livejournal.com]

Airily: "Not unless you have something to suggest."

[veneficusvenato]

She truly shouldn't be enjoying this so. "Maybe we should walk."
This is follow by starting to walk, rather than waiting.

[veloxepistola.livejournal.com]

If Inara has to.

(She has to. Or would at some point. Why not now?)

Inara doesn't mind starting to walk, and not catching up with Jo while they do so. She is presuming they are heading to Jo's pub.

[veneficusvenato]

Except they aren't.

If Inara intended to see the bar, Jo assumes she would have come by since arriving. It's been open and she's been running it since before Inara arrived and through her time since then. And she doesn't walk fast enough, that holding a step of two in gait leaves them even.




What they end up passing though, by no surreptitious plan as Jo can not rearrange High Street, is the Post Office. Hundreds of owls in such a tiny place. Color coded and so very public. And her glance at it is simple, if discerning.

"You know I was never very fond of this place when I was young, either."

[veloxepistola.livejournal.com]

Probably not for the same reasons I wasn't.

With an indirect wave of the hand: "Post owls are an efficient message system in wizarding society. The birds that visit me are more just that. Visitors."

[veneficusvenato]

"Back home they were always more subtle about it."
Jo considered it. "Even for humans."


She doesn't almost say Muggles. Or Hunters. Very specifically.

[veloxepistola.livejournal.com]

"The lack of subtlety bothers you?

"I'd say that they are so ubiquitous now that the birds themselves are almost entirely overlooked."

[veneficusvenato]

"It did." Jo looked at her barely, as the reference was to the past.

"But I haven't had to think about it for a long time now." Jo was very inclined toward how things worked in her world. And often disinclined the game changer notes.

"But I've been given to understand that is changing."
At least part of the rules were. Half of the game.

[veloxepistola.livejournal.com]

"I believe you might be correct. A discreet handwritten message in the hands of the right person, with the right words, can sometimes have a much more advantageous effect in a particular endeavor."

[veneficusvenato]

Jo stared at the Owlry. Before she gave a single nod.

She didn't have to agree. It was not required.
She was long used to the truth of that.
Comply. Balk only certain things.

(Such as Lee & Sokka that year.)



"Thursday night, next week. I'll be expecting you."
As simple as though it were some dinner she meant.

[veloxepistola.livejournal.com]

"At least I won't be an uninvited guest."

An under-enthused smile, but some effort is made, at least. "I'll even pay my own tab."

Yes, clearly because Inara looks like she knocks them back.

[veneficusvenato]

"As you like." But almost a nod.


Jo turned to take a step.


And then turned back.
Looking at Inara.






"I'd like to see everything before then, too." It's sound more like a professional request than anything else, and very much not a now thing. "Whenever would be best for you."

[veloxepistola.livejournal.com]

"If I had much to offer you, I would not have been sent here.

"I'll bring by what I have later on this evening."

[leavsfrmthevine.livejournal.com]

"Oh discretion and intimacy shall be paramount at the White Lotus. After the tea of course," Iroh replies, laughing a little at his joke. "We shall have two floors and a garden. The rooms on the first floor can be divided by screens which have been spelled against eavesdroppers and the second floor has more permanent rooms. If you wish I shall give you a tour when we open."

He finished by pointing to a round Japanese temple like building with white walls that is a few blocks away now.

[OOC: Here is a preliminary description of the White Lotus (http://leavsfrmthevine.livejournal.com/1371.html) if you are interested.]

[veloxepistola.livejournal.com]

Inara's eyes are about as wide as teacup saucers at the sight.

"How pretty."

[veneficusvenato]

She may clarify later that she means the place, too.




But Jo's expression had turned discerning.
Not annoyed, but more toward making a point.

"If that first part were true, we wouldn't be talking now."

That she was here, that she was drawn in.
It meant she had more than she lacked.

[veloxepistola.livejournal.com]

"You may have a point."

Bells chime from some unseen location to the south of them. Three.

"Is seven acceptable?"

[leavsfrmthevine.livejournal.com]

"Thank you," he replies humbly though his heart swells with pride. Such a reaction and she hasn't ever seen the water colors yet. "Do you have a business here in town or are you visiting?"

[veneficusvenato]

"Perfect."



Jo nodded, "Until then."

[veloxepistola.livejournal.com]

"I recently moved into the flat above the bookshop. I'm helping out the owner.

"My commute to work is fantastic."

[veloxepistola.livejournal.com]

Seven comes a little bit more quickly than Inara had anticipated - when she had returned to the bookshop, Ivy was trying to cope with a large order of textbooks that had been placed for Hogwarts' library, so the first few hours were spent moving boxes and leaving Inara much more disheveled than she usually appears.

After cleaning up a bit, she changes clothes and heads over to the Three Broomsticks.

[leavsfrmthevine.livejournal.com]

"I would be envious if I did not enjoy walking so much."

[veneficusvenato]

Interestingly enough, and not entirely uncommonly, Jo actually isn't anywhere to be seen. There's wait staff and someone else behind the bar at present.