London

[deathrosehunter]

Where you can have your meetings, and run a muck.

[Nahara46]

Abigail gave off her biggest grin to the shop keeper of the store as she entered, walking with a sort of skip. A few women that were browsing turned and gave smiles toward the little girl, and she waved at them enthusiastically as she jumped over to the rack of stuffed animals in the back. It was a general store, but every so often this little girl would come in and admire the stuffed animals. Once the shop keeper had asked if she were interested in purchasing one, but she declined and said, "My teddy would be jealous if I got another stuffed animal. So sometimes Mummy let's me come and play with the ones in the shop when she's running errands around the street." The shop keeper had smiled and left Abigail to her play.

Not a single one knew that, not every time of course, that would be too obvious, every few times that Abigail visited- she would slip in her pocket something or another. Whether it be a little notebook that she used to teach Willow what little she could (Mostly the alphabet, little Will couldn't understand any math or science yet, but Abigail made sure that Willow would be able to read within a few years.), other times Abigail would take an apple, or bread that she would place in the purse she carried.

Today's plan was a bit bolder then what Abigail normally tried- but Will needed a new shirt, her current one was to filthy for her to be wearing and not arose suspicion. Abigail hadn't come across an empty house with clothing suitable for Willow, so when she saw that the store had a little rack of shirts, she decided it would be her next mission. Now, she began by visiting the stuffed animals, like she always did.

[G. Novella]

Alison was free for a few hours today. Her grandparents were out to lunch, and she was finally able to get away. Her father never said a word when she disappeared, not that it made up for anything, he hardly spoke to anyone. She knew he could, but he hardly ever did. She had left the usual way, and gone across the street, and two blocks over to the department store.

It was her favorite escape. Filled with beautiful clothes she could never dream to fit into, and perfumes, magazines, and more, she'd spend hours there, before heading back to her home. It was the only escape from that dreaded place, and oh, how she adored it. When she entered, she moved gaily through the toy section, ready to cleanse herself from reality. Maybe today she'd pretend she was the daughter of a happy family. Everytime she came, she cast a small Forget-Me spell on herself, to ensure anyone who met her forgot she had existed, unless she cast the countercurse upon them.

[Nahara46]

After spending a few minutes sitting at the rack and making the animals talk to each other, Abigail was satisfied that there were enough people in the store, and the shop keeper was bored of watching her play. Getting up slowly as if she had become bored of the animals, Abigail began to stroll around the store, staying behind the shelves in the back as she looked at the toy cars- that were placed directly next to the shirts. After a moment, and a quick glance that the shop keep wasn't looking, Abigail pulled off a single top and shoved it into her purse.

Afterward, Abigail smiled and picked up a toy care, spinning it's wheels with her fingers before placing it back down and skipping toward the exit. "Bye!" She called chirpily with a wave, and the shopkeeper waved back absently. Now she had to go and pick up Will- she had left the little girl in the department store not far away. Willow was smart enough that she told any adult that asked that her Mum was in the changing room, and had told Will to look at toys while she waited.

[G. Novella]

Alison was startled when she saw a young toddler playing with a stuffed tiger. She looked far too little to be on her own. Surprised, she approached the young girl.

"Hello there," she said sweetly, bending down to be closer to eye level with the girl. "I'm Alison, what's your name? Where's your mummy?"

[Nahara46]

Willow had been sitting on the floor, leaning up against the shelves and playing with a stuffed tiger when the woman approached. Clutching the tiger to her, she gave the lady- Alison, a wide smile. "Mummy's in changing room. She told me to play 'til she done." Willow replied promptly and confidently, having been told what to say by Abigail. "My name Will!"

[G. Novella]

"Hello Will," said Alison, trying not to frown. Did muggles leave their children alone like this? She'd never heard of any that did it to children so young! "Who's your friend?" she asked, pointing to the tiger with a smile, determined to watch the child until her mother returned. It wasn't safe she was all alone! This was a large department store, after all.

[Nahara46]

Willow then held the tiger out by it's back leg. "Dun know. He hasn't told me yet." She frowned in thought as she brought the tiger back to her and held it up to her ear. "Simba!" She proclaimed happily, confusing the lion in the movie she and Abbie had watched at a house with this tiger. "Like in the King movie!"

[G. Novella]

Alison tried to comprehend what a movie was. The last one she'd seen had been years ago, and she'd been too young to understand what a movie was. All she knew was it had to do with moving pictures. However, she did understand thw Tiger was supposesedly a King.

"Is this Simba then? Hello Simba! What's his story, I never saw the King movie," said Alison, shaking the stuffed tiger's paw.

[Nahara46]

As Will tried to remember the story, she tilted her head and scrunched up her nose. "Simba had a bad uncle who made his Daddy fall down. Simba ran away, but the girl came and made him come back. Bad uncle had took over and made everything sad, but Simba beat the bad uncle and made it all happy again."

---

Abigail had reached the department store, her eyes jumping to her bag every so often. She hopes it would fit Will, as Abigail had just chosen the first one she could grab. Now Abigail began toward the toy department.

[G. Novella]

Alison listened to the story with a smile on her face, "Yay for Simba! Did Simba do this all by himself with the girl?"

As she spoke, she sat herself cross-legged across from the little girl, and couldn't help but notice her clothes seemed a bit dirty, and small on the girl.

[Nahara46]

"Uh-huh." Willow replied in a bit of an absent-mindedly way. The, she grabbed another tiger off the shelf and looked up at Alison with big, wide eyes. "And he fought the bad uncle all by himself!" She proceed to have the two stuffed animals pound against each other as she made them pretend to fight. "Simba won!" Will then dropped the second tiger, and held Simba up to Alison proudly.

---

Abigail was about to round the corner into the toy department, when her sister's voice hit her ears. A bit confused, as Will wasn't one to talk to herself or stuffed animals (She normally did it all in her head), Abigail peered around the corner. When she saw the lady with Willow, she groaned softly. Who was she, and why was she bothering Will?

[G. Novella]

Alison clapped excitedly, "Yay for Simba!" She couldn't help but wonder if like Simba, she'd ever be able to overthrow herr own evil grandoarents, and maybe someday even watch this Tiger King. "So, he became the King then?"

[Nahara46]

Willow gave Alison a look of astonishment, "Of course silly! That's why it's called Tiger King!" It did not compute with the little girl that this was not obvious.

----

After using a word she had seen a man who stubbed his toe use, Abigail took a deep breath and poked her head back around the corner and began to skip over to Willow, as if a happy child.

"Will, Mum sent me to come and get you!" She gave Alison a smile and greeted, "Hullo, I'm Mary." Abigail knew better then to use her real name- if she had her way, Willow would use false names too, but this wasn't something Willow had quite mastered. Will would always burst into giggles when she tried to say her name was anything but 'Will' or 'Willow'.

[G. Novella]

Alison turned in surprise to see a small girl of about seven or eight coming to fetch Willow. She looked smaller then Alison expected, and her clothes seemed ill-fitting too. The girl couldn't understand why something was off about the little girl, but she couls sense something was different.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mary, is it?" she asked quietly, looking back at Willow, "I was wondering if I could speak with your mum, Willow didn't tell me she had an older sister. Were you with your mum in the fitting rooms too, or did she leave you on your own as well?"

The last sentence came out a bit angrier than Alison intended, and she had to force herself to smile.

[Nahara46]

Abigail felt a sting of annoyance that this was woman was poking her nose into Abigail and Will's business. However she forced a smile and replied, "I was with Mum. She went ahead to get tickets for the train, I was to come and pick up Will. I'm sorry, but there isn't anytime for you to speak to Mum." Abigail then approached and took one of Will's hands.

Will smiled as Abbie took her hand. "Abbie, are we taking the choo choo?" Willow asked, forgetting to use the correct name.

[G. Novella]

"The train? She left the two of you alone in a large department store to get the train?!" hissed Alison, as she stood up, determined to meet this woman. How dare she! "Allow me to accompany you! Would that be okay Will? I want to hear more about the Tiger King." She hoped that Will's agreement might be able to prevent the older girl from blocking her. She knew all too well what the older child could do when determined to protect their parents, after all, she'd done it for daddy and her grandparents, and still would.

((BTW, posted in Counties in Witch Hunt to bring in Rylan))

[Nahara46]

"I'm sorry miss, but we have to hurry, Mum doesn't have time for chatter." Abigail was quickly becoming a bit flustered, what would she do if this lady didn't let them go? Where could she and Will run? Her eyes flitted around the department store, trying to map an escape route. Willow was looking up at Abigail for guidance as the little girl replied a bit hesitantly,

"You watch Tiger King. 'Will no good at stories."

[G. Novella]

"That's okay, you did a great job Will," said Alison with a smile, her blue eyes warm and kind, "Maybe I should tell you a story in return?"

Then turning to Abigail, she frowned. The young girl seemed determined to leave her here. Her mother couldn't be that awful, could she? "That's alright," said Alison with a sweet, forced smile, "I'm sure your mum won't mind at least a polite hello. In fact, I want to make sure to at least say hello. What's the hurry?"

[Nahara46]

"Er..." Abigail searched for a reason that her Mum wouldn't was in a hurry, "We're... picking Dad up from the airport, and we're running late. Mum didn't get to...uh... finish her hair this morning, so she'd rather stranger's didn't see her." Abigail vaguely remembered that once her mother had run out of time for putting make-up on and doing her hair, and she had refused to go out in public. "Listen, We really need to go." With that, Abigail gently pulled Will and began to turn away.

[G. Novella]

This time, Alison frowned. She put her hand out, and grabbed Abigail's arm, a stern look in her eye. She made sure to hold tight, but not tight enough to scare the girl, as she said, "Did your mother teach you to lie too? Why would she step out of the house to go shopping and take the train, where hundreds of strangers could see her, if she doesn't like people seeing her hair undone?"

[Nahara46]

Abigail mentally used the curse word she had learned from the toe-stubbed man as she started twisting her arm to get away. "Let me go, Or I'll scream." Empty threat, Abigail knew better then to attract so much attention to herself and Willow, security would never let them get away.

---

Willow's eyes widened a bit as Alison grabbed Abbie, the little girl moved a bit to be behind her sister as she watched the woman, a bit frightened.

[G. Novella]

Alison rolled her eyes at the frightened children, though she felt bad herself. She loosened her grip so that the writhing girl wouldn't be in pain, but made sure to slip her wand out from it's holster in her sleeve, ready to silently freeze the girl if necessary. "I'm not here to hurt you," said Alison quietly, "And you're not going to scream. They hate it when you draw unnecessary attention to yourself. I bet your mother would really hate it if you did such a thing."

[Nahara46]

Abigail saw the woman's wand, and her eyes widened. "Your a witch?" This was worse then she'd thought. She and Will hadn't entered the wizarding world since they run away through the Leaky Cauldron- if the Ministry caught wind of them, as she was sure they'd been searched for, she and Will would be placed in the system faster then she could blink. "Let me go!" She repeated, her voice becoming high-pitched as she became frantic.

[G. Novella]

Alison was surprised at Abigail's recognition of the wand. Most muggles tended to think it was some prop or ignored it entirely. She hadn't expected this little girl to recognize it. Looking around, she wished she could apparate all three of them out of the store. However, she knew she couldn't. And despite not having a trace on her thanks to her grandparents adamantly hiding her from everyone, she knew casting a spell might attract ministry attention.

"Look," she said, inferring the little girl was a witch, "I don't mean you any trouble! I swear, I just want to help you! I can help you get away from your mother, you don't deserve that kind of life. You're still young, you can escape!" Alison felt frustrated as the words poured out. As much as she claimed she could help this young thing, she could barely help herself. At least the girl wasn't a werewolf, she'd get by easier than Alison could.

[Nahara46]

"Escape?" Abigail narrowed her eyes in confusion, "Why would I want to escape from my Mum?" Obviously, the woman had reached some sort of conclusion that Abigail hadn't caught. Abigail knew she'd never want to escape from Mum, in fact, she'd do anything to get Mum back. However, Abigail did stop struggling quite so much. The woman didn't mean to hurt Abigail and Will, so maybe if Abigail played her cards right, the two girls could get away.

[G. Novella]

"She's not been treating you right Mary, has she?" whispered Alison, "It's okay, any mum who leaves her kids alone is not a good mum. No parent should abandon their kid..." Alison trailed off at the last bit, thinking of her father, before replying, "I can make sure you find a parent who does right by you, I swear I will."

[Nahara46]

"Mum wouldn't leave me and Will on purpose!" Abigail said immediately, not quite thinking it through. Mum had been a great mother to Abigail and Willow, Abigail would not take someone insulting her.

---

Willow just watches quietly, unsure of what to do. She had a confused look though, Mum hadn't left them... had she? Abbie said Mummy had to go and didn't have a choice.

[G. Novella]

"So then why was Willow sitting alone, Mary? And why did she send you to pick her up instead?" asked Alison, confused. "You told me she left you alone, were you lying?" While Alison could understand why the young girl was suddenly defending her parent who was obviously not treating her right, she couldn't understand why the girl's stories weren't adding up.

[Nahara46]

"Because I don't have a Mum!" The moment Abigail accidentally let it out, her eyes went wide and she tried again to pull away. "Let me go, Please!"