June 19th, 1895 — High Street, Hogsmeade

Ariana Dumbledore had, unfortunately, been paying attention when her family used the floo. Father used it often, back when he'd lived with them still. Each morning he would go away to work. Each morning, Ariana would watch through quiet eyes as he took up a small palmful of powder, tossed it into the fire, and stepped inside. Many different names he offered the fire before it whisked him away. Ariana never could remember them... but the floo took one wherever one wanted to go, and Albus told her all about this glorious little town called Hogsmeade.

That was how Ariana, dressed for the day in periwinkle blue with her pale hair curled loose about her shoulders, came to slip the leash of her exasperated governess and smudge her skirts in soot reaching on tip-toes for the floo pot. She managed to seize a small handful of the powder, tossed it into the hearth, clambered after it into the flames. Before her governess had the time to realize Ariana had gone, she had spoken "Hogmseade!" to the flames.

And here she was. At least, she assumed this bustling street was Hogsmeade... she'd never seen it before, but it looked precisely as Albus described it. A little-wide eyed and smiling to herself, Ariana rubbed the soot from her cheek and started off down the street to see what she might find.

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Open to anyone who might encounter a child wandering unattended around High Street. Preferably someone safe, or a potential friend her age.

  

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Elliott didn't really go anywhere wholly unsupervised but he did have a little more freedom to go as he pleased so long as he did not go too far from his governess who was nearby. He had a sneaking suspicion that sometimes she just wanted to be free of him for a bit to focus on Emilia.

He was loitering near Denbrights Toy Emporium when he saw a sole girl pop out of one of the shops nearby. "There's still some stuff on your cheek," he said as he fell into step beside her (probably to the later annoyance of his governess but that was a problem for Future Elliott), curious about who this random girl was and why she was alone. Girls were not supposed to go about all alone.

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Ariana jumped, and for a split second she stared at the boy without comprehension. She didn't know him-- because of course she didn't, she didn't know anyone, even in Godric's Hollow-- and it took a couple beats for words to come back into her brain.

"Oh--" she answered, dazedly, and raised one thin hand to smudge at her cheek. She couldn't tell if it did any good. Her hands were rather sooty themselves, after grabbing a fistful of powder. Ariana blinked wide eyes at him anyway. "Thank you. I didn't think the floo would be so messy..."

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Elliott did wonder for a moment if she might be mute. Some people in the world were, he knew. But then she was answering him and brushing at her cheek. She was a bit of a mess but not too bad. Though governess would probably have a thing or two to say if Emilia were too be sooty like that.

"Was it your first time using it? Are you all alone?" Elliott asked in innocent curiosity.

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"Mmhm," Ariana nodded slowly at the boy. "My brother told me about this place... although I think I must have done something wrong." With round, owlish eyes she scanned the street around them. "I do not see any of the shops he mentioned...?" Perhaps she'd misunderstood. Papa never seemed to wind up somewhere he didn't intend... or if he did, he'd never mentioned it.

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