July 23rd, 1895 - Hogsmeade Post Office

The conversation with her mother had gone better than expected (when had Alvin gotten so smart?), but Sloane had agreed to come back at least a couple times and have dinner and she had a couple errands to run before she moved her things into the bunkhouse at the zoo. She was waiting on some correspondence from Carolina about their return and though nothing had showed up, she wanted to make sure it reached her where she was. Not that Harry wouldn't tell her, she thought he might be eager to get back to where they'd left off too, but she wanted to make sure she had all of the information.

So it was off to the post office she went with a letter in hand to send to Carolina with her new quarters and a couple logistics questions. She also had a couple of letters of inquiry to colleagues of Mr. Podmore's about upcoming research trips. She had steps to take, now she just had to take them.

And once she finished this last stop, she could get the hell out of Hogsmeade.

"Darby?" She immediately recognized his face when she stepped into the post office. She was sporting blonde hair again, trying to blend in and make herself less recognizable. "Come a long way from the steps of the owlry, haven't we?" Sloane teased with a laugh as she made her way up to the counter with a genuine smile; if she had to see somebody she knew today, she was at least glad to see him. Of all of the places she'd found him as a hedgehog at Hogwarts, that had been the most memorable and now thinking back to the situation, knowing he was a human stuck as a rodent; he must have actually been trying to write a letter! Who would have thought?

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Aubrey Davis

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   Aubrey Davis

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Adventure Awaits!

It was hard to say if he would have recognised her, if she hadn’t called him Darby – he hadn’t seen her in quite some time, and people he had used to know always looked a little different from this angle, even before you added metamorphmagus magic into things.

And she was quite a small person, Aubrey had only just realised, especially for a girl who had always had so big and colourful a personality back at school. But only one person called him Darby. “Miss Bi...xby,” he said, with a grin to admit he meant Miss Biscuits, of course, though it seemed overly familiar to say just now. “A long way and not so far,” he said happily, because here he was, surrounded by owls again. Less in need of saving this time, though, which was nice.

“And you? Long way from South Africa, aren’t you?” he asked, suddenly curious at having bumped into her here in Hogsmeade at all. She was off on her adventures!

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Formerly known as Davis, Elijah Urquart's pet hedgehog.

It felt almost unnatural to smile at this point in her life, but she couldn't ignore the little pause in Davis' pronunciation of her name, almost deferring to her nickname, which at this point she might also prefer. Anything to not be herself or go back to her time at Hogwarts, before life got too complicated. The surprise at his question was also expected. Her features fell a little, but there really was nothing to be done about a hurricane.

"Bad weather, really bad weather. We had to emergency evacuate for a couple weeks." The timing was so terrible, Sloane was starting to think the universe was out to get her for some egregious wrongdoings in a past life. Otherwise she wouldn't feel quite so unlucky or unlike herself these days. "I actually came in hoping to have my post forwarded to the zoo. I'll be staying there while I'm home and I don't want to miss any communication about when we go back." Surely this was something they could do, right? Otherwise she could ask Alvin to keep an eye out for it (or Harry, that made plenty of sense), but she didn't want to rely on them to get her anything expedient.

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Adventure Awaits!

“Shame,” Aubrey said sympathetically. Unfortunate in any regard, but probably more so when one was attempting to run away from home. (He knew that wasn’t her only reason, of course – she was no Gryffindor child; she was all grown up, with an exciting career! But as well as reading, Aubrey could also sometimes read between the lines.)

He nodded anyway, scribbling a note of her name and new location. Owls often used the post offices for their nesting roosts especially for long-distance flights, and could be redirected in progress. “Course. We’ll see them sent on if anything gets through.” The bad weather where she’d come from could delay things. He didn’t comment, yet, on her not staying at home home – he didn’t judge her for it, but he felt a little concerned for her, he supposed – but he did add, “Are you expecting anything important while you’re here?” He’d see those missives flagged as urgent, if he could.

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Formerly known as Davis, Elijah Urquart's pet hedgehog.

It really was a shame. It was hard to run away from somewhere when you kept getting forced back. Hopefully once she got back, she would get to stay gone and things would eventually even out.

"Not really, just updates on when we get to go back and maybe some letters from friends from the expedition." She wouldn't mind hearing from the people she'd become close to on the trip so far. That would be a nice reminder of what she had to look forward to getting back. As long as she survived being here for the next couple weeks. "I'll let you know when I head out again though, so you can stop looking." She would remember. Davis had been a good source of news from home in their letters, it wasn't like she would stop writing to him.

Leaning on the counter casually, Sloane set down the two other letters she wanted to post. "Is this new for you?" She motioned around the little post office with a hand, wondering if she'd missed something.

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Adventure Awaits!

Aubrey nodded. “Pretty new,” he admitted. He hadn’t been going to shout about his new job until he was sure he could manage it, and stick it out here – but if Miss Bixby’s adventures entailed expeditions to the far south, he supposed his version of an adventure was this.

“Moved up to Hogsmeade about when you left,” he said, with a wry chuckle. Ships in the night. “Thought it was about time to try my hand at something new. Which turned out to be dealing with creatures, too.” He jerked his head up at some of the roosting post owls with a slight grin. “Sounds like you’re enjoying your time out there, then?” Or she had at least made friends out there, as she said, so her much grander adventure seemed to be going well, otherwise.

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Formerly known as Davis, Elijah Urquart's pet hedgehog.