The noise was overbearing, the hum of the city was not what he was used to anymore, it had been around a year since he had even been around this many people, add in the cars and the motorcycles and he was completely overwhelmed by the speed of the movement surrounding him. He carried a duffle bag over his shoulder with the few possessions he owned and kept a wary eye out for anyone that might try to take it from him, he'd arrived that morning on the first ferry from Calais and was still trying to get his bearings of where everything was, unfortunately what he needed to find was not on a map.

The wizarding pub known as the Leaky Cauldron was where he wanted to be, from there he was sure that he could find somewhere to stay, and even decent enough directions to the ministry so that he could see about getting a job, he knew he had the qualifications to just about have his pick of the academic career paths, and it was just a matter of asking around finding something that appealed to him. He bumped into a youth and immediately checked his back pocket, his wallet was still there after the brief encounter, it was so he continued down what he thought was the right street, looking for the one thing that didn't fit, that people were ignoring and pretending it wasn't there.

He saw it, a man seemingly appear in a group of people that they regarded carefully and moved away from him, the door behind them as the man stumbled off down the pavement, a few kids around David's age tailing and mocking the man as he went, as David approached the area that the man had appeared in the pub expanded into view. He pushed the wooden door open and stepped into the haze of the pub, the smell of breakfast fill his nostrils, but he was barely going to have enough money to spend on a place to stay till he got work, let alone spending money on a big pub meal.

He moved away from the door to stop any potential traffic coming through it, he hitched the bag higher up on his shoulder and looked around, it was much quieter in here, a few murmurs of chatter was scattered about the room, it wasn't the room full of high spirits that he remembered from his days when he traveled through the pub to Hogwarts. He took a pint of water from the bar and sat at an empty table, there were several people nearby that he didn't pay any mind to, he was tired but happy to be off his feet for a while, he could ask around later for help.

Eleanor sat hunched in a corner booth of the Leaky, blowing her soup until it was at a reasonable temperature. She was still keeping board upstairs, owing to her complete confusion regarding leasing an actual proper house and living anywhere but with her mother and a dorm filled with girls. They didn't teach any of this stuff in school - the adult part of her education seemed to be a pat on the back, and a good riddance.

And now - almost especially now, everyone was on their own to some degree. Eleanor had come to room at the Leaky because it offered some measure of comfort and protection. As a muggle, she could survive perfectly well out in the world, passing as 'normal' by their standards. Nothing odd about her. But as much as she could pass - Eleanor didn't want to, as soon as things had started going haywire, she'd cut short her 'bonding' expedition with her mother in order to return and start her training as a hit witch.

Torn between the world she was born into, and the world she so desperately wanted to carve a niche into, Eleanor just followed the chaotic trail back to the world of magic. It was far from welcoming anymore - the loss of magic had turned their world topsy-turvy and no one felt safe anymore. Every person who walked in was regarded suspiciously, even in the worn down warmth of somewhere as familiar and unthreatening as the Leaky Cauldron.

Eleanor didn't recognise anyone - in her time travelling, she'd lost contact with most of her friends and floated back into an alien world. The varnish she'd imagined when she was younger had long disappeared, everything was all too real these days. But magic was still, well, magical. Eleanor still held a thrill each time her fingers brushed against the smooth handle of her wand, each time something wonderful happened before her eyes. Even the terrible things were marvelous because they were so impossible. Her ten year old self was still delighted by the simplest of tricks, though she'd learned to harness her enthusiasm for magic into its application. People tended to think you were a bit simple if you smiled every time a spell was cast.

Eleanor heard the door open, and she looked up to see who else had come inside; a habit of looking over your shoulder was something to be cultivated given current events, and looked back down to go back to her soup. She paused, the spoon hovering just near her lips and looked back over at the bloke who'd just come in. There was something familar about him - and that wasn't something she could say often, seeing as her memory for names and faces in any combination was wretched. But he was from Hogwarts, she remembered that much.

She looked around her surroundings, and back down at her soup as if turning it over in her mind. She hadn't seen anyone she knew since getting back, she'd barely said more than two words to anyone outside of ordering food and organising her board. Some simple conversation wouldn't kill her. She was so bored she was contemplating going through old books to see if she couldn't raise up some hell. It was far too early for a drink too.

Carefully picking up her bowl and the two slightly stale rolls that had come with it (the charm of the Leaky), Eleanor edged her way towards the familiar stranger. She wasn't the world's most friendly person - but all of this silence, and suspicion was getting a bit old. Bolstering her confidence, she simply put her plate on his table and pulled out a chair.

"I know you from somewhere don't I? Eleanor Armistead - we went to Hogwarts together. I think you might have been in my Potions class or something. I was to say...Daniel? Derwent? D...something, anyway. You putting up here for the week?" she asked, nodding at his duffle bag. The problem with Eleanor was that when she went outside of her established relationships, she had a tendency to go a bit overboard and talk herself into a frenzy. It was her way of overcoming what was a natural shyness towards strangers, to appear at ease and confident in every circumstance.

She smiled crookedly and tried to pull out some distant buried memory of common ground to go off on. But there seemed to be nothing. "Don't mind me sitting here, do you?" she asked, tearing off a chunk of bread and holding it above her soup as though her next action depended on his answer.

He leaned away from the table with his back resting against the rear of the chair, his arms relaxed in front of him on the table, his eyes turned towards the stained and splitting wood in front of him, countless years of use and not even magic was able to hold it together as strongly and seamlessly as it once was. He picked at a small crack with one of his fingers but gave up before he got pricked by a splinter, instead he took to playing with the pint of water that sat in front of him, the cool glass was letting drops of water slide down its outside and onto the table below, forming a ring around the glass, he spun it idly as he thought over the last year and a bit, for all the time he had gone, now that he was back it felt like it had only been a week.

The trip begun with him leaving Chelyabinsk, he'd grown tired of the being blackmailed into being their trained dog, going from province to province and following their instructions down to the 't', he'd grown weary of the screams, the agony and the pain that was caused by his hand only because he was too cowardly to accept any pain on himself. As much as he wanted to stop what he was doing, he always felt something each time he completed a task, and that was what scared him the most, if on some level he was enjoying it, then he was truly no better than the people that had taken his mother. So before he could find out, he left, leaving the life of his mother in their hands he merely left at the first opportunity, he ran to where they'd never look, to where they'd be thrown out by rival company's that wouldn't like the arrival of their competition.

In Japan he'd found a community amongst the hills, westerners that were living without modern vices, and in a very backward lifestyle, there he was able to work and live on his own terms and fully come to grips with what it was that he had been doing with his life, and it was there that he was alone enough of the time that he was able to think over what that feeling was whenever he had acted on behalf of the group back in Chelyabinsk. On a level, he was ecstatic and proud of the pain and suffering he inflicted, he was proud of himself and pleased with the results and the result of the fights, but the more that he thought about it all it truly was that he was happy with himself being better than another person, he bore no ill will towards any of them, he was just happy to know that he was better than them.

He was brought sharply back to the present, blinking his eyes and giving the slightest shake of his head to get himself back to the present, despite the confronting and stand-offish nature of the world that he had walked back into, he seemed to have attracted a visitor to his table, he tried to remember what he was wearing, and wondered if there was a sign around his neck that somehow made him inviting.

He'd been called many things over the last six years, but he'd never been told that he was inviting, or even that he was worth sharing a meal with, it was an altogether strange and uneasy feeling that he was getting at that moment, he took a sip to cover his awkwardness. He didn't like people, there was nothing that any one person had ever offered him that he hadn't had to pay for with his own blood and sweat, his mother had sold him out at the first opportunity, and since then things just weren't what he thought they should have been. What did she want his name for?

"It's David," he corrected her, he didn't know what else to tell her, as far as he was concerned Hogwarts was nothing more than a painful experience that was nothing more than the classes that he took, friends were non-existent, it was an education and nothing more. She wanted to know where he was staying? What did she want?

"No, I don't have anywhere to stay at the moment," he said, even if that wasn't the case it would be a comfortable lie that kept him feeling safe from being tracked by anyone, even if she said she went to Hogwarts with him that didn't mean that he would just be wholly open and trusting with her. He looked down at the piece of bread she had poised over her bowl, sending her away would likely cause more questions, and would draw unwanted attention by others. "You're welcome to stay," he told her, "however I don't remember you from school, then again I'm not sure that I'd remember anyone that I would've known back then." Too much had happened, and there was much more important things for him to have mulled over the last year than who he went to school with.

Eleanor scrutinised her stranger's reaction before shrugging and popping her bread into her mouth. She wasn't really put off by his short answers, her natural born inquisitiveness could get a bit annoying at times. It would have done her ego far more damage to turn away just now, than to at least try her hand at conversation. In school you were forced to be social, as an adult, she didn't know how things were really supposed to work. But she figured that you had to at least put yourself out there. She wasn't looking for a lifetime friend, but some company over soup would go down well.

"You're not very chatty, are you? No one is these days - there's barely anyone around the streets at the moment. Have the whole place to myself some days," she nattered on, as if she could just talk long enough he'd either say something back to shut her up, or she'd strike upon the right topic.

"People still come here 'cause they reckon it's safe though. Well, as safe as it can get. Wizards can't find their arse without a wand, so they're all a bit scattered right now. Traumatised, I'd bet. Most people just stay home, but the Leaky's never shut not once as long as I can remember it. Got to have a place to drink it all away when it's tough," she murmured, looking around at the faces of the other clientele - there was something spooked about them, like they'd all faced death and were only now coming to terms with it. Maybe it was easier for her since she'd been brought up outside of magical influence, her instincts were to do things the Muggle way, but to delight in the witch's way.

She fixed David with a polite smile, still trying to figure out how to approach him. He was guarded to say very least. The everest of social interaction, but she'd get somewhere today. She had a lot of words saved up, and no one to use them on. "I'm not much good with faces myself. Didn't look too far out of my little group of friends when I was there. Had my head in a book if I could help it. Shy-like," she told him amiably, dunking another bit of bread into her thick soup.

"I've been out of touch for a while," he said with a bit of a thoughtful frown as she nattered on about the state of, what he assumed, was Diagon Alley and the Leaky Cauldron, he wasn't sure what could have happened while he was gone to have gotten an entire community, but when he didn't even receive local news where he was, it was fair enough for him to have not heard anything about the state of affairs... here. He wasn't even sure if he could call it home anymore, he wasn't sure where he could call home. "What have I missed?"

David tensed his jaw when she mentioned that she was the shy type back in school, he refrained from adding that even if she weren't he doubted that he would've paid her much mind, he wasn't in the habit of paying anyone any mind but himself. But perhaps she, like him preferred the quite of a library and the study of things, rather than a wand brandishing stereotypical witch, he shrugged and sipped at his water.

"I didn't pay much attention to anyone at school," he told her in reply, "I was never much interested in things outside of the library," he added as he leant his hulking frame against the table, resting on his elbows as he toyed with the glass of water.

Eleanor looked at David quizzically - where had he been that he hadn't heard the news? "We lost power for a week. As in...we lost power. Wizards going nuts because their wands wouldn't work," she said, nodding at a peaky looking witch to their left. She leaned in a little closer. "We're out now. The Muggles know," she told him softly, quirking her head to the side.

"Where you been that you didn't know that?" she asked him slyly, looking down at his duffle bag and doing a once over. The world was looking at them - Great Britain was in tatters, the Ministry was disgraced by such an act of intrusion. David's not knowing was an indication of something - a man too busy to read the news, or too hidden to see the world going down in flames around him.

David couldn't help but smile at the news, he was never the sort to go for his wand first in a time of crisis, but he still couldn't imagine if he was forced to do without for any extended period of time, just knowing that something like that was always there was a comfort, and something to fall back on was a plus. He wiped the smile off his face and shrugged, he probably shouldn't find the image of the world shattering to pieces too funny, but wherever there were broken pieces, there was an opportunity to pick them up again, it would be most interesting to see who ended up with the most.

"Other side of the world," he answered her question, there was no way he was going to answer her fully, no telling what she'd do with it, but it wasn't just his own reasons that he kept the location secret, the people that he'd left behind didn't like outsiders, he had to go through a lot just to be accepted into their community. He shrugged, "it should've done some of the pureblood good to be without magic for a while though, they need something like that." His tone gruff and disapproving, the thought not even occurring to him he may have offended her.

Eleanor narrowed her eyes at his evasive answers, wondering if she oughtn't pry a little into the specifics, but she doubted she'd get anything from him - it wasn't like she needed to know, it was just that in being presented with a mystery, she felt the need to dig.

Shrugging and going back to her soup, Eleanor pondered at his peculiar reaction. Most people were still in shock that it had actually happened, usually the incident itself was spoken of in hushed tones, like they might summon it back upon them if they talked too loudly. "They've never been without magic in their lives. Don't reckon they've ever had to do anything without their wands," she remarked. It was...well, a little amusing in its absurdity, the way some witches and wizards had carried on. Muggleborns and rational purebloods hadn't been so helpless, but the old families - they'd been like drunk pixies, running about in a panic or fainting from shock.

"I don't think some of them could have found their arses without a wand," she muttered dryly. "I was in Battersea when it happened, Muggles went nuts too - had to keep my head down. Not hard, I guess - but they were looking for anything strange. Heard reports of old style burnings going on in some towns. Probably ended up being Muggle psychics I'd bet," she said, thinking of how much of a struggle it had been to get her mother to tone it down and act normal while the whole world went mad around them. Eleanor hadn't been too worried about herself, but her mother had always had a habit of calling attention to herself in her dress and her ideas - she never was good at shutting up, but as Eleanor had reminded her, it wasn't her time to become a martyr.

David nodded and hummed in agreement while he sat back and folded his arms over his chest, he didn't know exactly when he had taken the time to ask her about her own experiences with the failing of magic, he personally had used day to day essential spells for the past year. Cleaning his clothes and making sure that his food was clean and things like that, nothing strenuous, but he could always do things the manual way, he hated the idea of becoming dependent on anything, being dependent on another person would be worse, and he avoided that even more diligently.

It was interesting to say the least and he sat up a little straighter to hear that there were burnings in odd places around the country, muggles were a surprising bunch, from the things that they deigned to tolerate to their complete overreactions to something like this. The reaction had surprised him to say the least, if anything he expected the muggles to ask for countless favours, instead they turned to their medieval selves.

"Sounds like everyone had their bit of fun," he said dismissively, there was still something that he needed and yet she seemed determined to side track him, if it weren't so interesting he might have gotten away with not prompting her, but it was something that he could get from a the ministry or something like that at a later time. "So, Eleanor, I was hoping you could point me in the direction of a magical hostel nearby, nothing as expensive as this place," he said as he took a sip, "if not do you know of anyone else that might?"

Eleanor mused quietly on the way David reacted. She had been studying up, paying attention to all her books on reading human behaviour. Hit Witches were the elite, and she was trying to incorporate it into her every day life. To become the best at her chosen path. So far, Mr David Harper was proving to be frustratingly difficult to read. She drummed her fingers on the table and stared at him rather baldly, as though if she squinted, it might reveal something of his character.

"Fun probably isn't the word for it. They were only rumours. Wizards have as many prejudices as Muggles do," she shrugged and went back to her soup. "Cheaper than this place? Living on a shoestring?" she inquired, still tacking away determinedly. She would break him. Oh yes. He just didn't know it yet.

"You'd be better off looking in Knockturn if you don't mind roughing it a bit. Or the odd...murder," she added awkwardly. She'd not really spent much time in Knockturn, apart from a curious wander in her school years. It was all hearsay on her end, but she was like as not going to get properly acquainted with the place in a professional manner. "Other than that, there's a place in Islington. Most of the wizards are staying well away from anything in the city so they can't charge much," she said. "If you're up for living dangerously that is," she added with a small smile.

David shrugged at the conversation, he was never really one to delve into the prejudices of the wizards and muggles, he didn't bother himself over matters that other people had, he didn't think about anyone other than himself, especially over things like the blood lineage of others. He hadn't gave much thought to the matter, magic was magic, and those that couldn't, couldn't, it was as simple as that.

He picked up his glass of water and drained the dregs of it with a few large gulps, he needed something that was central to London, and cheap, so he definitely liked the sound of finding somewhere in Knockturn till he could get a bit more money for somewhere a lot quieter and more secure. Islington, while to a wizard was close enough to everything, sounded like the place that he'd be noticed, at least in Knockturn he'd be ignored just like every other decrepit soul that wandered the alley.

"Thanks," he muttered as he put his cup down and picked up the duffle bag, slinging it over his shoulder and headed towards the back of the restaurant, he might not have been back in London for a while, but he still remembered the way through the Leaky and through to the Alley like he did in his third year. As he pulled his wand and tapped away at the brick wall, he was tempted to see the reaction of the woman that he'd just left at the table, instead he heard the grind as the wall receded and opened into the Alley, and that drew him through back into Wizarding Britain once again.