Hey, Missy! [open]

How she had been shoved and shuffled into running the shop for the day, Alicia had no idea. She was here to be learning things. Not having Mr. Whitehorn shuffle her off to something that was so not her job. He'd been babbling something about her "getting to know the ropes" and how she "wouldn't truly know the company until she understood its cogs." The old man could bite her, not that she would say that to his face. Though, he probably knew exactly what she was thinking given his knowing chuckle. Alicia had a hard enough time dealing with the public since her relatively recent departure from the Ballycastle Bats. Everyone wanted autographs, or to offer her pity. Questioning her about whether she would return, or if there was a guy in her life - why would anyone need to know that? To say that she gleaned significantly more enjoyment by staying hidden in the bowels of the Nimbus Racing Broom Company's Research and Development Department would be more than an understatement.

Dealing with the menial task of simple broom repairs of filling out order slips for hassled parents and their messy little ones wasn't exactly challenging. More irritating than anything. She'd had to reset half of the shop twice already when a youngster had left appeased with their new supplies, after ripping through the aisles like some sort of controlled cyclone. It wasn't even noon yet ... she thought she might scream. What had she done to be sentenced to this hellscape? Overworking might have been the easy response from Mr. Whitehorn, but the old man loved meddling. Even if he disguised that meddling as actual concern. Sure, her hip ached and she'd been a bit irritable. How that was solved by having him unleash her on the unsuspecting public was beyond her grasp.

Sighing, Alicia lifted herself back onto the stool behind the register which she had been so graciously offered. She returned back to sorting through the orders, and filling out requisitions for spare broom parts. It was tedious work, but the only glimmer of thankfulness she had for it was the fact that it kept her off of her feet. For the most part. Alicia's gaze darted up in dread as the bell above the door to the shop rung and someone entered. Pasting a cheerful smile onto her face, "Nimbus Broom Shop, the best brooms, you better believe it!" She wasn't sure she even believed herself, but she had to sell it. "What are you looking for today?" At least today couldn't get any worse.

Well.... As disasters went, this was a pretty epic one. Why in the name of Merlin had she thought that she could do this on her own?! When Cora tried to blow her hair out of her face, she only succeeded in causing a miniature storm of dust and splinters, and the woman ended up coughing and spluttering, hand over her eyes, until the clouds settled. Not really what she had had in mind when she had set about her preparations that morning. It was supposed to be simple – she had had it all mapped out for weeks now. All of her washing and ironing had been done ready for this amazing day of no holds barred organisation. The first part had gone fine – she had packed her trunk according to the list she had written up the previous Sunday at 4am, when she should have been sleeping but was instead listening to the hooting and hollering of her brothers having yet another one of their parties that she couldn't bear. She was so looking forward to the relative silence of Hogwarts in the early hours of the morning.

Everything was neatly in the correct place, and she was ninety eight per cent sure that she hadn't forgotten anything. That niggling feeling in the back of her mind wouldn't quit, though, and it was slowly driving her to insanity. She had triple checked her suitcase, which held her valuables, a few sentimental things that she couldn't bear to leave behind, and her all important lesson plans, which she had been working on all summer. Ophelia, her tawny owl, had had her last flight and was locked in her cage with plenty of food and water. It took far longer than it probably should have for Cora to realise what it was that she felt like she was missing. Despite being several years too old to do so, it felt like she was packing for school again, and since her second year, Cora had never gone to school without her broom. It was ridiculous, really, that she had to do this, but the discomfort of not being completely prepared wouldn't go away until she did it. So she took down her broomstick repair kit and sat out in the back garden. At first, it was OK – she trimmed the straggling fibres from the tail and polished the handle and foot rests. Then she decided that, as everything had gone well so far, she would move onto the more difficult maintenance tips. As it turned out, there was a reason that her father had warned her away from that section.

A couple of hours later, Cora finally gave it up as a bad job. Though it didn't look as if anything was wrong with it, it most certainly wasn't right. It wasn't exactly left either. In fact, every time she tried to mount the thing, it promptly turned her completely upside down! After being unceremoniously dumped onto her lawn more times than she cared to count, she shook her head, throwing everything haphazardly (which was a clear indicator, for those that knew her, of how frustrated she was) back into the case. She slotted the case into a perfectly shaped space in her suitcase, glancing at the clock more out of habit than anything, only to choke on the breath she had just been releasing from her lungs. Two o'clock?! She had told herself that she was to be at Hogwarts no later than six that evening, and now she had to make a completely unplanned trip to Diagon Alley! She had to get moving!

She took quite possibly the quickest shower of her life, dressing quickly in the outfit she had laid out for her first entrance to Hogwarts as a teacher, and cast a couple of spells. The first was to Banish her luggage to the Hog's Head, where she would pick it up after her detour. The second was to extend the dimensions of the small clutch she was going to take with her. Huffing a little with the effort, Cora somehow managed to get the broom in there, and she promptly Apparated into the Leaky Cauldron. She stopped only for a very brief conversation with Tom as she passed – it was a relief, really, that the bar was quite busy, and he couldn't stop long. Within minutes, Cora was pushing the door open to Nimbus Broom Shop, trying not to act quite as breathless and panicked as she felt.

The number of times she had been in there and never recognised the clerks, Cora was brought up short when she saw a familiar face behind the counter. She stopped dead a few steps into the shop, and had to consciously force herself to keep moving. ”Don't be weird, Cora.” She warned herself, a hesitant smile tugging the corners of her lips in response to Alicia's. Did she greet her by name? Just because she knew it didn't make it OK... Did it? Conscious that her prolonged silences tended to make things awkward pretty quickly, Cora rushed to speak almost as soon as Alicia finished. ”Hi Alicia.” She started, her eyes darting to her purse as her cheeks heated. ”I guess I'm looking for... Broom repair?” The volume of her voice dropped as she confessed. ”I tried to fine-tune the turning charms and.... well... I'm not really sure what happened.” She finished lamely, running her hand through her hair.

Clothing: outfit

Alicia fought the urge to groan when she recognized the face in front of her, the features were familiar but she couldn't quite place a name to it. Though, given what her life had amounted to, and how many people she had met, it was fair to say that she didn't recall everyone perfectly. The only people she actually remembered were those who constantly harassed her, and then the people she actually cared about. By now it was to the point that anyone who recognized her off the bat, but she didn't recognize, brought a niggling of suspicion and a temptation towards irritation to the forefront of her mind. Something that wasn't all aided by the fact that she openly dreaded being forced to converse with any of her customers. "I'm sorry, do I know you?" Her eyebrows drew together in confusion, trying to mask her mild dread. There was no way she'd ever get away with being outright hostile, even if she wanted to, and it would do no good chasing away customers if she wanted to avoid another talking to.

"I've just met a lot of people over these past couple of years." Trying to avoid a hostile and insulted customer as Alicia tried to place the woman. Between her Professional Quidditch career with the Ballycastle Bats, with all of the fans and other players she had run into, and her time at Hogwarts there was a lot to sort through. Something that Alicia had never been the most adept with, let alone now when there were some things that she just didn't want to remember. Especially if it was another journalist who had come knocking. No, she'd hex one of those out the door and give her excuses later. "Yes, we do do rather well with broom repair." It was what this shop was intended for, after all. Couldn't let those other broom shops be meddling around with their specific series of charms, divining all of their secret 'recipes' and what have you. All the policy really did was make more work for her.

"Right, the turning charms. Yeah, that'd do it." Alicia sighed in relief, so she definitely was just a normal customer, then. No undercover journalist doing some 'Where are They Now?' piece and desperately digging for a scoop. The charms just might be a bit trickier, though, since she'd have to figure out precisely what the woman had done to trigger the fail safe or whatever, and if they could even be corrected on the broom to begin with. It was rather safe to say that Alicia would rather be experimenting than mending the same old charms that were in who knew what condition. "I mean, the brooms come with some fail safes to prevent standard tampering. It depends on what you tried to fix." Alicia shrugged, there wasn't much of a solution if the woman hadn't know what she was doing. So, really, Alicia was looking for a simple and quick solution. Desperately hoping that the woman had had at least an inkling of what she had been doing toying around with the turning charms.

"I'll need to take a look at the broom, I suppose." Alicia added with a sigh, tapping her fingers impatiently across the desk in front of her. God, she really wasn't feeling up to the whole customer interaction thing right now. Give her balancing the books alone in a room any day. "What were you trying to fix, exactly?" Alicia asked, arching an eyebrow, "You could have come in for a customization." She shrugged, it certainly would have made her life easier if she knew going into this that the broom had been just as it was when it was purchased, at least spell-wise. They were mad precisely as they were sold for rather obvious reasons, after all. Toying around for that kind of thing could make a broom a safety hazard, especially for the daring witch or wizard. "I might be able to set it to rights." She certainly hoped so, anyway.

After work, it has always been his favorite time. Don't get him wrong, Lyle loved his job. He is an Auror after all; he just isn't particularly fond of the new recruits they'd gotten. Not that they were not up to par with his standards but Lyle in general just see a lack of genuine, selfless purpose in them. As a guy who valued the greater good the most, he just couldn't get behind those who wanted to be Aurors because it was cool, or because they wanted to show off. He'd fought in the second wizarding war, nothing in the job description of being an Auror said that it'd make them look cool neither was it part of their job to show off. It was always a tiring day after training as he could only get behind a handful of new recruits. All of them were talented, that was true; it's all just Lyle being a goody-two-shoes, I want to save everyone, I'm doing the right thing pride that he held with his job title.

He pushed the door open and a small bell rang. His left hand pushing the door and his right hand in his jacket pocket. He sighed as he entered. What was he doing in a broomstick shop again? OH right, he needed to teach the new recruits how to properly maneuver through a confrontation in the sky with evil wizards. He needed to order fifteen broomsticks and have them delivered at the ministry by next week. Where else was he going to go but here? He knew Alicia Spinnet from when they were in school, not too close but they'd had their laughing fits here and there. She'd gotten reasonably cranky when she had to stop her Quiddich career, which by the way Lyle was a huge fan of. Lyle'd always make sure to visit her and make her feel a little less lonely from time to time, try to help her get over her scars and all. His teases and jokes all had good intentions. Although the last time he was here Alicia did hex him so maybe he'd turn it down on the tease and joke about something else. 

Lyle then noticed that someone else was there. Another person he'd known from school. Wow was is a good day to be out and about it was like nostalgia day for him. Cora Leonidis, a fellow hufflepuff of the same year. He'd hung out with her sometimes in school just to make her laugh to, most of the time, no avail. What was she doing here? He knew she loved Quiddich, they were on the same team together after all. Logically, she was here to get a broom or have one repaired.

He stood quietly behind Cora, he waited his turn keeping his sarcasm at a minimum as he peered over Cora's shoulder to notice an unreadable expression on Alicia's face. He gave her a smile and waved. "Hey" He said to Alicia in a rather tired manner. He still stood behind the first customer now with both hands in his jacket pocket.