There's a First Time for Everything

Casey was always bored nowadays.

Literally. Lily was out of her life, Lucy Weasley was the most aggravating replacement, and her brother was too busy to actually take her up on all of her planned adventures. Casey had delayed attempting to create any sort of social life for herself in lieu of her almost obsessive relationship with protecting her cousin Lily. She had been so distracted watching out for the Potter girl from afar that she had pushed away her peers... Though, to be fair, she would have probably pushed them away anyway. Most people were stupid, in her experience.

So, when her family decided to take a trip to Diagon, it seemed logical that she should abandon them and take a stroll down the dangerous Knockturn Alley. It wasn't her first time wandering down Knockturn, but it was definitely the first time she had enough time at her disposal to really get herself into some sort of trouble. Which, sounded great in her book.

She strolled, looking comfortable despite how out of place she looked. She was dressed as though worry had never touched her and any sort of fear would roll off her back easily. She strolled easily, pushing between groups of people in dark cloaks and shrouds, seemingly at ease. She had found that acting like you belonged was always the best way to make believe it. No one had attacked her yet. It seemed to be working.

She glanced up in time to see some sort of transaction happening, stealthily, smoothly. Casey's eyes narrowed and she watched the two figures go separate ways. Now, Casey didn't know exactly what had made Lily go bonkers, but she had her suspicions, and she was willing to bark up any try to figure it out. Her worry in doing so was small - she was doing this for science. She wasn't a threat, so there was no reason to feel threatened.

She decided to follow the more feminine figure, who had just disappeared into an alley. Casey followed, her expression resting in its usual blank state. As she rounded into the alley, she jumped right to the point. "Are you a drug dealer?"

Marie couldn’t remember the last time she’d laughed this hard. There had been a few seconds of silence where Marie had ran the young girl’s words over in her head, and then a few more where the witch had attempted to figure out how to react to such an absurd question. The longer she waited, the harder biting back a laugh became, before the woman gave up on biting it back entirely.

Her laugh was ringing and hearty, horse with the sore throat Marie had forgotten to take a potion for earlier that day. It didn’t take long, really, for her laughter to die down into soft chuckles. It wasn’t overly hilarious, more bizarre than anything, to the dark witch.  The type of situation that one needed to giggle about for a moment in order to get it out of one’s system.

The witch took her remaining few snorts of laughter to examine the girl before her. She was young, but Marie had never been great at pinpointing the exact age of youngsters. She appeared old enough to be going to Hogwarts, but certainly not of the age that she could cast magic legally outside of school. Then again, that particular law didn’t matter too much, here in Knockturn.

“No, I’m not a drug dealer,” le Papillion responded smoothly, once her breathing had evened itself out once more. The fearlessness of the girl before her amused the dark witch. She found herself terribly tempted to ruffle the youngster’s hair and give her a trinket. Though, judging by the blank set of her face, such an action would not be appreciated. The girl reminded Marie, in the strangest of ways, of a young version of herself, approaching one of her father’s men. The young Marie had asked, face expressionless and tone blunt, if he really thought he’d get away with betraying her father. He’d attacked her, and her father had walked in on the scene. To say that the man’s life had ended bloody would be an understatement. Despite it not having been by her hand or order, Marie had always considered that her first kill. She’d never regretted it.

“I am the boss of a few, though,” she continued wryly, mouth twisting into a slight smirk, French accent coating her every word.

The woman was laughing.

Casey didn't understand what was so funny.

She was quite serious about this.

So serious that even her mental tone was all pissy about it.

Despite the fact that this whole situation was playing out on a whim, based on improvisation rather than planning. That did not, however, indicate a lack of conviction on her part. Casey had felt the affects of drug use through the problems of her family, and she did not think the issue was at all a laughing matter. Needless to say, this little meeting was not off to great start. And Casey was definitely not about to join her in laughing.

She cleared her throat. "Well, as their boss, you must know that they are selling to people who are basically forcing young teenage women into addiction. So... you should probably make them stop."

(Sorry it's short. She's a bit blunt.)